Chapter 8 – First Love?
At long last the detailed Q&A was ended so I could go use the loo and leave. Cara walked with me out of the clinic area.
"Miss Glasson, I asked the lab for another looksee at your blood iron levels. Perhaps a bit low, as your history tells. Now we know we can keep an eye on it."
Just then Edith approached us. "Everything alright?" she asked.
Cara turned to Edith and told her, "Everything seems right." She looked back at me. "Ultrasound next week. See you Tuesday," she finished saying then walked away before I could tell her good luck with her own test; the test she was going to administer to herself.
I recalled that moment the plus-sign appeared in the EPT window and how I cried for a very long time in the London school loo.
Well good luck, Midwife Cara, I mentally sent her way. Edith was peering at me, so I had to speak to her. "So you're a doctor."
Edith grinned. "I'm doing research next door at the Zephran Clinic. The hospital gives us staff, so I do obstetrics one day a week."
Just my luck, I mused.
Edith stared at my vast belly then up at my face, nearly smirking. "Why did you wait six months until coming back to Ellingham's village?"
That got me two ways. She called him Ellingham, not Doctor, or Martin, but last name only. I only answered about the second way she got under my skin. "It's not actually Martin's village."
She shook her head. "Your village. Cold feet about going it alone?"
If I had an icepick in my handbag she'd have died right there. Heart or eye? Hm, let me think.
Which would hurt more? Her skinny chest and nonexistent baps would provide little protection and would be slower than into the eye and brain. Heart then. I wanted her to feel pain and I wanted it to last.
I took a deep breath. "Not sure it's any of your business," I spat out. "I've lived in Portwenn all my life; my home. And I've come home to have my baby… on my own. Got it?" I turned to go but she caught up, so I had to stop and face her.
"You can see how I got the wrong end of the stick," she told me half-heartedly.
"Not really. Is it because I've got a country accent?" It was the same old story just like up in London. Poor little country bumpkin; poor little country girl.
Suddenly Edith's eye's swung to the side and flew wide in shock. "Oh my God! Auntie Jill! Do… you remember me? Edith Montgomery."
I found Joan standing by my elbow.
"Yes," Joan told her in a cold way.
Edith glanced to me then back to Joan. "And you two know each other."
"I gave Louisa a lift. What are you doing here?" Joan said to her the way she might address something nasty stuck on her shoe.
Edith smiled at her. "Research."
"So when did you two meet?" I asked trying to sound innocent.
Edith grinned. "Ellingham and I were in medical school."
I know my mouth fell open so I closed it quickly. Bloody hell! The two of them in medical school together? And she just happened to be at his house when I and my pregnant self arrived. I had planned on asking Martin for a night's stay, but her comment that she was a friend of his as well… There went my plans – so off to the pub I went, which I was still paying too dearly for. Damn.
Joan asked me. "All set?"
"Yeah," I grunted for all I wanted was to get away from Edith; Dr. Edith Montgomery. In medical school with Martin. More of the mystery of Martin revealed; another cut into his onion.
Edith next said, "Nice to meet you again Louisa… and you too Jill!"
Joan snapped at her, "Bye," so we got out of there.
I marched down the corridor, or at least as much as a 26-week expectant woman could while Joan followed along. When I glanced back at her she was angry, as told by her tight-lipped mouth and her glaring eyes. She caught up with me at the exit doors and shook her head.
"You okay Joan?" I asked.
"Fine," she said but she wasn't.
"So you met her when Martin was a student?"
"Yes." Waves of disapproval radiated from her.
"Did he bring her down to Cornwall then?"
"He did, yes."
I opened the truck door and began to hoist myself onto the seat.
"Oh," was all I could say, struck mute by it all.
Joan shoved Buddy aside, belted herself in and started the truck.
Ellingham's village. Those words blasted through my brain. So when I found her in Martin's kitchen and told her I was a friend of his, she'd replied, "Me too."
A friend? Just a friend or a whole lot more? No Louisa, a whole lot more – bunches of more – from her glam shoes to the top of her head she was probably all over him. Probably ordered him about and he followed every order dumbly – a sheep to the slaughter. I sighed.
Joan glanced at me. "Penny for 'em?"
I shook my head not trusting my words; fearful of what might come out.
Joan nodded as we left town heading back to the village.
Edith was a doctor – an OB; a fertility expert. I wondered if she was married or had been in the past? I didn't see a ring on her hand but that didn't mean anything. But Martin had never mentioned her, at least not to me. Well why would he Louisa? Hm? You certainly didn't tell Martin that you and Danny had once been a couple. Well a few dates mostly, and the off snog on the Coastal Path. Danny… Danny had betrayed your trust Louisa and how with Deirdre.
Buddy stuck his head under my trembling hand so I rubbed his ears.
Joan coughed. "Buddy can always tell you know."
"Tell wot?"
She smiled briefly. "Flustered. You."
Flustered? That was one word for it. Gob-smacked might be a better term.
As I petted the little dog's head I found myself grow a bit calmer. I had thought coming back to Portwenn was the right thing to do. My village, my home, my school. No Louisa, it's NOT your school. It belongs to the village and Mr. Creepy.
So Martin is cozying up to his old girlfriend? I glanced over at Joan who drove with an intense expression. The way that Joan had cut Edith off spelled volumes. She didn't like her either. Well what was to like? And that crack from Edith to me about 'going it alone' had almost made my head explode.
Well bloody hell yes, Dr. Montgomery, because my ex-fiancé seems to have taken up with you I AM going it alone. Buddy scampered across me where my lap used to be and tried to lick my face.
"Buddy! Stop! Stop it" Joan screeched at him but I felt she wasn't really yelling at him.
"It's alright, Joan."
"Louisa, you don't want his germs on your face."
I smoothed his furry head as he settled down again between me and his owner. "Oh he's fine."
"All the same," she sniffed. "Funny."
"Wot's funny?"
She shook her head. "Nothing."
If she meant bumping into Edith yes it was funny, hugely hilarious. The town was far behind us now and the moor stretched all around us. The waving grass and scrubby bushes spelled home to me.
I must have sighed for Joan said, "You'll do fine, Louisa. Baby cooking along to spec?"
Cooking a baby brought up terrible images. "The baby is fine. Right on schedule. Weight's good, not that I ever imagined I'd be interested in gaining weight on a schedule."
She nodded. "Good then."
I wiggled under the seatbelt and Joan looked at me sharply so I told her, "Really, I am."
She raised her eyebrows. "I was envious of my friends – when they had their babies."
I laughed. "Envious of being fat?"
"No just having babies."
I sensed her long-held craving. "Well this is your great-nephew in there."
She smiled. "I imagine Martin was none too pleased to see you." She looked at my belly. "Like that."
"Surprised, oh yes." The look of shock which replaced surprise stung. I ought to have told him about having a baby, his baby, long before. Just showing up like that was… well Louisa, you were scared how to tell him, until it had to be seen and shown.
"Martin never did like surprises."
"Think I guessed that." A huge surprise Louisa. Another bollixed up mess in the Martin Ellingham and Louisa Glasson story.
Joan tapped my elbow. "Louisa…"
"Yes?"
She looked my way and gave me a huge smile. "You'll be great."
"Great as in huge?"
"No, no! A great mum."
"Well I don't feel so great at the moment Joan."
Joan got the hint and stayed silent the rest of the way home. When she braked to a halt on the Platt I'd nibbled myself thru another ten or fifteen Jelly Babies.
Sugar was a poor remedy for what I felt. I was wondering what else Martin and Edith had studied together in school? That made an ugly image which wouldn't go away.
I looked at Joan who'd gone very quiet the last few miles. "So was Martin quite fond of her then?" I asked innocently.
Joan looked coolly at me. "I suppose he was, yes. A long time ago though."
But to me they seemed pretty chummy the night I found them in his kitchen. "Was it like a first love thing…" Joan gave me a funny sort of grin. "I'm only curious."
"He wanted to marry her," she said matter-of-factly. "She went abroad for her career instead."
Edith chose medicine over Martin? A little of the tight knot me inside loosened. She chose work over him? Poor Martin… he must have been… heart broken. Was that why he seemed so closed off at times? It explained a lot, I thought. Well perhaps. Martin rejected by his med school sweetie. But she didn't seem very sweet to me; more like vinegar. I hated her enough more than before now that I had a good reason. Hate Louisa? You mean that? A very strong word.
The Jelly baby melted in my mouth. Yes, hate. Hate for how she had hurt him.
But Louisa, my thought went, didn't you say to yourself, and to Edith, that coming back to the village had nothing to do with Martin? Just keep telling yourself that Louisa story… just keep saying it. Maybe in time even you might believe it.
Automatically another Jelly Baby got to my lips but I hardly noticed.
So did Edith want to rekindle what they had a long time back? What did they have then? But if Martin wanted to marry her… he certainly knew what he wanted. But Joan did say it was a long time ago.
The way she called him Ellingham made me think that she considered him now, and then, more of a colleague. And yet my doubts swirled. Did he go for gingers then? Or was Edith a brunette really? He certainly admired my own chestnut hair… as well as other things.
If it was his first love then it might explain how the vibs I felt from her might be explained. I found her cerebral, pushy, obstinate, and brusque. Oh Lord! She was like Martin in too many ways! No wonder they fell for each other in school! Or at least he did but then she rejected him.
I glanced at my watch. "Gosh!" I was late getting back to school! I popped open the belt and truck door. "Thanks so much for the lift. So much nicer than the bus."
Joan touched my hand across the cab. "Just give me a call anytime. See you."
"Bye."
My head swirling with thoughts of Edith and Martin, I labored up the hill to school.
