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Up at Rothrand estate that bordered one side of the village, Carly Evans braced her spent ar pool and hauled her tired body out of the water

‘Whoever said they got an endorphin rush out of exercise was either lying or dead,’ she muttered to no one but the Baron’s Pekinese, who snapped at passing insects as he lay like an untidy mop in the shade of the terrace

Carly had been doing laps of the pool and jogging during her free tio and she’d yet to feel anything other than exhausted and sore

Not that she should be co as the elderly Baron Rothmeyer’s temporary doctor had been a real coup Not only was the location spectacular, but, due to the Baron having to undergo a life-threatening operation in teeks, it was also live-in As in, living in the main house, live-in

But the job would be over soon and she’d have to move on Which was fine with Carly who,of a wandering gypsy this past year

She pulled a face at the thought and squeezed water out of her long red hair, flicking it back over her shoulder She was about as ypsy as a nun was a circus perforo she had led a very conventional life as a hard-working doctor in one of Liverpool’s best hospitals

That was until the botto

Grabbing a towel, Carly briskly swiped at her face and body She grabbed her phone and settled onto a lounger, deterone for another few hours she was not going to waste her free ti about the past

‘If you don’t face things,’ her father had said, ‘they become mountains instead of molehills’

As far as Carly was concerned hers had started out as a ht consider returning ho family because at heart Carly was a homebody who loved her parents And her sister

A familiar lump formed in her throat as the past lurched into her consciousness

To distract herself she grabbed her cell phone She had one new e to find out if she really was okay, one froency, Travelling Angels

Clicking to open her work email, she read that they had another job lined up for her as soon as this one was finished and did she want it Being one of only three fully qualified doctors on their roster, she had so far not been without work Which was fine with Carly Busypast mistakes

But she wasn’t ready to think about her next move yet so she closed that email and tapped on the one from her parents Yes, there it was, the question of when they would see her next, and whether she’d made any decisions about her future

Carly sighed and closed that email as well

A year ago her beautiful, kind and gregarious sister had died of a rare and aggressive form of leukaemia To add insult to injury, Carly’s über-successful boyfriend had been cheating on her instead of being by her side to support her

Not that she’d really turned to Daniel for support during those enerally busy and, if she was being honest with herself, their relationship had never been like that

He had pursued her because he respected her and she had accepted his invitation to go out because she’d been flattered by his attention Then Liv had beco had fallen apart Daniel had become resentful of the ti her about heron hi her sister as a ruse

No matter what she had said, he hadn’t believed her and then she’d discovered that in fact he had been the one cheating on her On top of all that, everyone at her hospital had known about it and no one had said a word to her The whole experience had been

Feeling the sun burning into her skin, Carly yanked on a pair of cut-off deni the slender black velvet jeweller’s box that had arrived for her earlier that day