Reunited: A Miracle Marriage. Judy Campbell
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Reunited: A
Miracle Marriage
Judy Campbell
Table of Contents
Dear Reader
Friends Reunited, school reunions…all places where we are deliberately seeking to contact people we used to know, and to discover how their life has panned out over the years. Thinking about this made me wonder what would happen if you were a single girl and had a completely chance meeting with an old love from many years before. I envisaged my heroine experiencing just that, and it triggering a life-change that she could never have dreamed of! What will her reaction be when her old flame turns up out of the blue? How will they have changed? What will their feelings be about each other?
Let’s face it—wouldn’t we all be curious to know how we’d regard someone we used to be head over heels in love with and then unexpectedly met—and intrigued to know how his life had fared without us? In Sally’s case, it shows her what true love really feels like!
I do so hope you enjoy reading about Sally and Jack as much as I had fun writing their story.
Best wishes
Judy
About the Author
JUDY CAMPBELL is from Cheshire. As a teenager she spent a great year at high school in Oregon, USA, as an exchange student. She has worked in a variety of jobs, including teaching young children, being a secretary and running a small family business. Her husband comes from a medical family, and one of their three grown-up children is a GP. Any spare time—when she’s not writing romantic fiction—is spent playing golf, especially in the Highlands of Scotland.
Dedication
To the happy memory of my mother
CHAPTER ONE
IT WAS stuffy in the lecture theatre, and the professor of cardiac medicine had a monotonous, droning voice. Sally Lawson smothered a yawn and looked around the room, amused to see that a few people had given up the unequal fight and were quietly nodding off to sleep. She knew exactly how they felt.
Her gaze wandered over the audience, wondering if she recognised any of the people there besides Jean Cornwell, her colleague, who was sitting next to her.
Suddenly she blinked, jerked out of her lethargy as she noticed a man several rows below her, or rather the back of a man’s head. Of course it wasn’t…it couldn’t possibly be him, could it? She shifted in her seat to try and see the man from a different angle as from where she was sitting he looked amazingly like Jack McLennan. A funny little tremor of apprehension fluttered through her even thinking of his name. Odd how just seeing the back of a stranger who had the same thick russet hair and broad shoulders of a man she used to love long ago could kick-start all kinds of memories…
Sally leaned forward to get a closer look at this guy’s profile. Of course Jack McLennan was hundreds of miles away in Australia and had been for years—he was probably director of the Australian health service by now, or something equally imposing, she thought wryly. She gazed into space, the professor’s lecture a mere background drone to her thoughts. It had been six years since she’d last seen Jack, the love of her life—six years since he’d told her out of the blue that he wanted to finish their affair and concentrate on his career. And she’d thought she’d known the man so well after their year’s passionate affair—they had even discussed marriage. She would never have guessed that he had been using her, had just wanted a fling before he finished his training and disappeared….at least, that was how it had seemed to her.
The lecture was drawing to a close, and the professor’s voice rose slightly, bringing Sally back to the present.
‘And so, ladies and gentlemen, I hope I’ve given you some insight into the challenges of treating hypertension and the benefits of tackling a major cause of cardiovascular disease as early and aggressively as possible.’
He beamed around the hall and there was enthusiastic applause from the audience, glad of the chance to stretch their legs at last. People began to get up from their seats and hurry away from the hall, amongst them the man who’d caught Sally’s eye. It was extraordinary—even the way he held his head slightly to one side as he listened to the person talking to him was so like one of Jack’s mannerisms. He was laughing, his deep-toned voice carrying over the crowd, and it could have been Jack’s voice—that easy laugh reminding her that, despite everything that had happened, they’d had a lot of fun together.
Sally picked up her handbag and started to follow Jean out of the lecture hall. Of course, it was neither here nor there that a strange man at the other side of the room should remind her of Jack and their long-ago affair. After all, she was engaged now and going to be married very soon.
‘What time do you want to be off tomorrow, Sally?’ Jean asked. Sally was contemplating the figure now moving towards the exit of the hall.
Jean waited a few seconds for a response then, grinning, dug her friend gently in the ribs. ‘Hey! You’re in another universe, aren’t you?’
‘What? Oh…yes, sorry. I thought I saw someone I used to work with, but it can’t be him—I believe he works abroad now. What did you say?’
‘Tomorrow—when do you want to leave? There’s a lecture in the morning but do you mind if we go after breakfast? If you want to stay, I can always get a lift