Louisa and Martin settled into a routine when he began the project in August. Twice a month, he arrived in Truro on Sunday evenings, leaving on Wednesday mornings. The plan had been to work on Mondays and leave Tuesday mornings. Now that Louisa was back in his life, they spent Tuesdays either at his hotel or at her home in the village.
Most of the old timers in the village had passed away or were at High Trees. Practically all of my friends had left. Caroline Bosman had moved to Truro, Isobel was in Devon and Holly had gotten married to an Australian and moved to Brisbane to live with him.
One evening when Martin and I were entering my cottage, Pippa from my old school drove by, saw us, reversed and stopped to chat. To say she was surprised to see us together was a gross understatement. She looked as if she had seen a ghost. Recovering quickly, she gave Martin a hard stare.
"Hello Doc, can't stay away from our Louisa, can you?" she chirped.
To her astonishment, he pulled me into his arms with a smile. "Can't say I can."
"Well, well. Louisa never breathed a word about you. Are you coming back to live in the village?"
I heard Martin sigh before he answered. "Not at all."
Well, that takes care of that, I thought. Still, Cornwall was large county, all of 1,376 square miles.
"How's James? Up in London with you I hear."
"So he is," Martin answered.
I like Pippa. However, standing in front of my door, my grocery shopping in hand, Martin looking as if he wanted to bolt, was not the time or place for a walk down memory lane. It's not as if she and Martin used to get along. In that regard, she wasn't unique. Martin and most villagers, including his patients, had a barely cordial relationship.
"Hope you won't be leaving us without a proper farewell like the last time."
"No, no." he answered shortly, not wishing to prolong the conversation.
We chatted a little then she drove off. We looked at each other knowingly. The pubs would be taking bets on the chances of us staying together, just as they had done for our non-wedding. I didn't care what they thought, and neither did Martin. Seems the villagers have elephant memories.
Luckily, nobody would come knocking on our door as they used to when I lived in the centre of the village and I was glad for that. When I moved away from the village, people used to just appear at my door with the excuse that they were checking to see how I was doing far from the village and alone by myself. I soon put a stop to these prying visitors by not opening the door, sticking my head through the window and saying that sorry, I was in the middle of something. I was glad that I no longer provided fodder for their pub gossip. I had to give Martin that assurance before he agreed to come to my home. Time between us was too precious to spend fending off nosey people.
Plus, I was busy. I had finally, with Martin's encouragement, taken the plunge and accepted a short-term advisory position on the National Board of Education. The assignment was to help update the national policy for primary education. It involved weekly Skype meetings, a monthly board meeting in London and would end in December at about the same time as Martin's project. The perk was that Martin and I were seeing each other a lot, either in Cornwall or London. What would happen after our projects ended was something I did not want to think about, so I let it be although I knew it was also on Martin's mind.
After a particularly challenging session with the team, Martin and Chris went for lunch at an Indian restaurant around the corner from the hospital. They had acquired a taste for curry from their student days in London. While waiting for their meal, Chris asked,
"What are you going to do when this is over?"
"What do you mean? In case you have forgotten, I'm still a consultant at Imperial - surgery, research, lectures and so forth."
"Not that. I mean you and Louisa."
What was I going to do? I wanted to take our relationship to another level - marriage. I just wasn't sure how to broach the subject to her. I knew she wasn't settled about her living situation. She had said many times that the only thing keeping her in the village now were memories. She seemed comfortable visiting my "London Oasis," as she called it, living there might be another matter.
"I don't know. I don't want to scare her away with a proposal and destroy our friendship. I don't want to jeopardize what I have with James if it ends badly. "
I wondered if I wasn't wanting too much. James and I have a good father and son relationship, why risk it by wanting Louisa too? What if I suffered the fate of hubris if she agreed to marry me and I still could not make her happy?
Chris snapped his fingers to bring me back. With that, he leaped into a fire known as the private life of Martin Ellingham, and into which he had ventured many times before with varied success.
"Mart, you ARE a couple and neither of you are getting any younger."
"What is that supposed to mean? What do you want me do? I made such a mess of things before."
"Talk to each other about what you want out of the relationship. Louisa may surprise you. She came to see me recently, and she was glowing." Seeing the concern on my face he quickly said, "She's fine. She drops by to see me when she's in Truro. Let's get back to you."
"Let me think about it. It's tricky. Louisa is a worrier. Thing is, I'm not sure she knows what exactly she's worrying about as everything seems to be a muddle in her head."
"Listen mate, I know you have some poppycock notion about not being able to make her happy. Marriage is not about being happy all the time. That's romantic mush. What would happen to the pleasures of make-up sex if we were happy all the time."
"Forgive me for not factoring in the pleasures of make-up sex into my deliberation," Martin interjected sarcastically.
"Oh shut up. As I was saying if I had succumbed to those fears ..."
Martin interrupted again, almost shouting, "They are not fears. They are real concerns."
"Stop yelling. As I was saying, if I had succumbed to those fears, Jenny and I would never have gotten married. We had our fair share of rows in the early days, disagreed constantly about how to bring up our children thanks to some of her Psychology new-flanged ideas. Even now we differ about how to handle our grandchildren behaviour issues when they are in our care. Would I say we have made each other happy? Yes. We couldn't live without each other warts and all."
"Chris, I understand that, but with Louisa it's different. If you must know, I'm as much afraid of rejection as I know she is."
"You're happier than I have ever seen you, Mart. Louisa brings out the best in you. Or, should I say your family, Louisa and James."
Martin eyes clouded over. "We have come a long way. Beaten the odds, really."
"From what James tells me you have become a couple. He thinks you have helped her to break out of the sadness from Nathan's death."
James's views were news to me. I know we had settled in as a family, all three of us, at least when Louisa was in London. She insisted that James and Rosie join us for dinner or a short visit when they could. We had also begun to see more of Rosie and Louisa was happy about that because she thought they were getting serious about being a couple.
Again Chris interrupted my thoughts and I knew he meant well. "Don't let your fears rule your heart again, Mart. And by the way, you may want to have Louisa checked for depression. She has been through a lot."
I held my head in my hand and groaned. "Chris, there's no other love but Louisa for me. I was an idiot to let her go and now ... "
