Chapter Thirteen: Priorities
Louisa and Martin sat opposite each other eating their evening meal alone. James and Ava were in bed, so the house was quiet.
Louisa had arranged several candles as centre pieces on the table with a vase of flowers to elaborate their meal further.
"This is nice," Martin said, holding up his fork that had a piece of chicken on the end.
"Thank you," she smiled. "Have you spoken to Chris yet?"
"No, I'll ring him tomorrow, see when the arrangements are set," he replied, "I also–"
The sound of his mobile ringing bounced off the kitchen walls interrupting his sentence. He sighed and snapped it open.
"Ellingham," he answered and waited, "What? Where?"
Louisa shifted in her seat, she admired that he was a doctor, but they had planned this dinner together only to be ruined by a patient.
"Hold the arm up to reduce blood flow, I'll be there in ten minutes," he grumbled and hung up, "Some stupid fisherman has severed his finger by shifting a crate." He jumped up and rushed into the office, collecting his medical bag.
"How long do you think you'll be?" Louisa asked.
"I don't know," he replied, annoyed that they were interrupted; he stopped as he went to leave the room and turned round, "I hope you'll still be up when I get back."
She smiled broadly and bit her bottom lip, "Well if you wish."
The corners of his mouth picked up and he swivelled round, marching towards the front door.
Martin parked his silver, polished car in the middle of the Platt, the nine o'clock Autumn moon was brightly shining over the deep, dark sea and the bitter breeze swept from the shore.
He scanned the harbour where he saw a man wearing a yellow overalls leaning against the side of a boat with several men in identical uniform surrounding him.
"Out of the way!" Martin shouted as he barged through the crowd.
"Alright Doc!" beamed Tom Newbold, "You haven't bought a fish for a while, you and the Missus gone off it?"
"Shut up!" he barked and knelt down next to the injured male, who looked to be in his late fifties with thick white hair and a long beard hanging from his chin. He appeared drowsy and very pale, "How did this happen?"
"Well, he was liftin' those crates, the ones full of fish and he trapped his finger between two of 'um, heavy an all Doc, that's why his fingers nearly torn off," Tom butted in before anyone else had a chance.
"Right, let me see, Mr…?"
"Kingsley," answered the fisherman supporting the patients' arm.
"Mr Kingsley, I'm going to examine your hand," Martin informed him as his eyes wavered from being open and closed. He took his hand gently and unravelled the bandage that was tightly wrapped around Mr Kingsley's hand, "Right," he said breathlessly, "I see."
Kingsley's finger was hanging onto his hand by a thin strand of skin. Martin diagnosed that the nerves and vessels had been completely detached from the rest of the hand and no blood supply was accessing the finger what so ever.
"This looks almost uncertain that it will be able to be reattached," he said, as a thud was heard from behind. He turned his head around to see a man sprawled out on the sand.
"Doc!" Tom gasped. "Paul's fainted!"
"He'll be alright," Martin muttered. He turned to the man standing beside Kingsley, "Right, is anybody available to take him to hospital? Wife, children, or one of you?"
"Erm, I'll take him, we'll let his wife know," the man, named John Peters nodded.
"Wouldn't an ambulance be better?" asked Tom, "We could take Paul as well?"
"No need, he's only fainted, and besides its not too much of an emergency that needs an ambulance," Martin replied, as he addressed the several fishermen surrounding him, "I need someone to get some ice, a tea towel and some clingfilm."
"I'll do that!" Tom jumped to the task and began running to the local pub.
Martin silently thanked that he'd gone for a few minutes to allow him to carry on his examination without interruptions.
"What do you need that for?" asked John, confused.
"I need to take the finger off the hand completely, wrap it up in the tea towel and place it on ice," he explained, "That way the finger won't get frost bite and hopefully preserve the nerves, but the hospital will need to see if the bone is able to take on the finger again."
"What?" John gasped, "You're going to pull it off?"
"Yes, it won't do further damage, its only a little piece of skin," Martin nodded and did just what he explained, when another thud was heard. He turned to see that Paul again had passed out.
"Gone again!" someone shouted, "Stood up finally, saw you do that and went straight down."
"Like a drunken mackerel," another voice said.
Martin wrapped the hand in a bandage tightly, informing the patient to keep his arm raised. Tom rushed back with the items, where he wrapped the finger and sent Kingsley on his way with his colleague.
"Doc, don't suppose you wanna buy anything?" Tom asked, his smile presented yellow teeth, a few missing and crooked.
"No," he grumbled and strode towards his car, ignoring the curses made from Tom behind.
...
Martin silently returned home, closing the door carefully and crept into the office to place his bag back. He saw that Louisa wasn't in the kitchen when he passed, the table was cleared and the lights were off.
He frowned and searched downstairs where it was empty.
"Louisa?" he called in a whisper.
He heard fumbling and then saw her appear, leaning over the banister with a smile painted on her face.
"Alright?" she asked, her hair dangling unevenly.
"Yes," he nodded, "went to hospital."
"Oh?" she said, and pushed herself back onto the landing where Martin climbed up the stairs to find her waiting.
Before he spoke she flung her arms around him and kissed him on the lips.
"Er Louisa?" Martin said as they parted.
"Shush, lets just resume the nice evening," she whispered, "Romance is a bliss."
He found his arms tightening around her waist and the kiss grow more passionate. He lifted her, rewarded with a giggle and carried her to their bedroom, just like on their Wedding day.
"Oh!" she laughed, as she was placed on the bed, "A lovely touch!"
He saw that she had placed candles around the bedroom, illuminating the room with a gentle glow.
"Mummy!" a cry came from one of the rooms across the landing.
They both sprang apart and Louisa sighed, as she quickly brushed the hair off her face.
"I'll go," she said, parting reluctantly from his grip.
Martin scanned the room, as he waited for her return, for a peculiar reason he wanted to make it more romantic. More candles? No, that would make it too bright, rose petals - Louisa used them up last time, his mind quickly raced and he remembered a bottle of champagne Louisa had been given from one of her staff.
However as he went to go downstairs, Louisa came back in with James in her arms, his head resting on her shoulder.
"Nightmare," she said, "Something about you being chased."
"Me?"
"Yes," she nodded, sitting back on the bed, stroking James' hair, "You were being chased by a beast or something…. A boy from school told him the myth about Bodmin."
Martin grunted in annoyance, and looked at his son clinging onto his mother.
"Right, who?"
"I don't know," Louisa said, "Look Daddy's here James."
Louisa leant back and James looked over at Martin, his eyes watery and cheeks flushed. He wriggled out of Louisa's lap and went over to Martin, throwing his arms around him.
"You weren't being chased?" he asked.
"No, James, I'm here," Martin said.
"And Mummy is OK?" he reassured himself.
"She's fine, look," he pointed over to Louisa, as she smiled at them both, forgetting the interruption of their romantic night.
"Can I sleep in your bed?" James asked, his eyes pleading as he looked between his parents.
Louisa glanced at Martin, who was hugging James to show that the dream wasn't real. Her heart melted at the sight of him being so caring and she couldn't take it for granted.
"Yes." Louisa nodded, "But only for tonight."
"OK," he sobbed and climbed into the sheets.
Louisa and Martin slid into bed, with James lying in the middle, already asleep. They both kissed him on the head and although the little boy had disrupted their evening, the evening was nothing when it came to him. Louisa leant over him and kissed Martin, both knowing that it could be saved for another night, James was the most important and they knew that Ava was snuggled in her cot, asleep with nothing bothering her. Louisa smiled and cuddled James as she too went to sleep.