Free The Bronze Lady (Woodford Antiques Mystery Book 2) by Kathy Morgan

equipment, her calm and well-ordered life had been thoroughly turned upside down and shaken about like a snow globe.
    Jennifer took after her father in that she liked her life quiet and considered, no sudden changes or impetuous decisions, but neither was she afraid to take on a challenge or a puzzle. This was why she had followed him into the veterinary profession. She loved the factual aspect of science, and she needed to have a purpose to her life, so animal care, and in particular equine veterinary science, suited her personality.
    Until last Sunday her career had followed an unerring path, with her decision at the age of seven years old to be a veterinary surgeon sealed when her father saved the life of a cat who had been run over in front of them. From that day on Jennifer had known which subjects she needed to study at school and which grades she needed to achieve in them. She was academically bright, which certainly helped in her desire to train in veterinary science, and, unlike her younger sister Alison, was not particularly keen on partying through her teenage or university years, preferring instead to join various school and college sports teams. Both of her parents supported her ambition, and she spent her spare time after school and at weekends volunteering at the riding stables where her mother worked in or at the veterinary practice in which her father was a partner. While she was away at university she found an animal shelter she could support by cleaning out stalls and runs, and taking the dogs for walks. When she graduated she was offered the first job she applied for, not at her father’s practice but at a larger mixed-animal practice nearby, and she had been very happy working there, content there would be opportunities for career progression when the time was right.
    But Jackie’s offer, out of the blue, had shaken her well-ordered world, and given her the opportunity to assess her life. At the grand old age of twenty six years old that one phone call made Jennifer realise she was now three years behind her own life schedule. She had always known that marriage and children were going to be a part of her life, naturally occurring life events she had assumed would fit in with her chosen timescale. Jennifer thought she would meet the man of her dreams by the time she was twenty two years old, they would marry when she was twenty five, and have their first child by the time she was thirty, before going on to have one or maybe two more, depending on how she was able to cope with motherhood and her career. And yet here she was, with no man, and no prospect of one any time soon.
    Her immediate inclination had been to turn down Jackie’s offer during that initial phone conversation, as it was far too unexpected and certainly not something that had crossed her mind previously. But something stopped her from a definite ‘no’, and she asked for a week to think about it.
    For Jackie the sheer effort of holding a phone conversation was huge, and she was only too pleased to end the call, even without a firm decision being reached, despite the time-critical nature of her dilemma. She knew that Peter and Alastair were capable of holding the practice together for at least a month, but that it wouldn’t be fair to impose on Alastair’s good nature for any longer than that, particularly over the Christmas period, and that Peter’s wedding preparations and subsequent celebrations would be taking his focus away from the veterinary practice.
    The morning after her telephone conversation with Jackie, Jennifer arrived at work and saw the place through new eyes. Was this where she wanted to spend the rest of her life? She tried to book an appointment with her manager with the intention of quizzing him about her future career prospects, but he wasn’t able to find time in his schedule to meet that week. She then asked if she could bring forward the week’s holiday she had booked in December, but the answer, not