Louisa and her crew had done a spectacular job converting the plain utilitarian village hall into a winter wonderland. This was especially amazing because they had virtually no budget. There were evergreen trees festooned with fairy lights lining the wall. The tables were covered in frosty blue tablecloths with white snowflake placemats. The centrepieces were glass vases scavenged from village basements filled with sparkly glass ornaments. Small votive candles softly lit the tables. Before the school holiday break began, the school children had painted rolls and rolls of paper, which when hung from the ceiling of the hall, gave the appearance of the winter sky over Portwenn at night complete with a full moon and winter star constellations. From this "night sky", hundreds of paper snowflakes were hung. It may not have been elegant, but it was truly festive and drew "oohs" and "aahs" as the party goers entered the hall.

Aunty Joan had insisted that they arrive right at six in order to nab the perfect table. She had arranged to share a table with her friends Bunny Severen and Nancy Croaker along with Bunny's son and daughter. "Of course" she added to Martin, "You may want to sit with Louisa and some of her friends."

"Mmm. We hadn't discussed it," Martin replied, while thinking, "I do hope there is room at a table with Louisa. I doubt that Bunny or her progeny will be founts of stimulating conversation."

Dinner was to be a pot-luck affair with every family expected to bring a main dish and a salad, vegetable or dessert for six. Joan had prepared one of her famous chicken casseroles and an apple cranberry pie. Martin, concerned that he might not find anything of nutritional value on offer, had roasted up a huge pan of winter vegetables. Louisa saw them enter and headed their way as they placed their dishes on the buffet table. "Joan, Martin, good to see you here. Happy Christmas. " She gave both of them her usual brilliant smile holding her gaze with Martin perhaps a little longer than with Joan. Martin blushed slightly remembering their passionate kiss from the night before and returned her smile with a restrained one of his own, "Yes. Happy Christmas."

Joan took in all this pondering to herself, "Hmm I wonder just how friendly they have become. Tonight could be interesting.""Yes, Happy Christmas," she burbled as she gave Louisa a big hug. "Have you met my sister, Ruth?"

"No, but Martin's told me all about her." Turning to Ruth, Louisa extended her hand and greeted her, "Ruth, it's so nice to meet you. Martin said you drove down together. I hope you have enjoyed your visit with us so far. Will you be staying long?"

Ruth had been observing Martin with Louisa, noticing his face and how it changed when he gazed at her and his body language as he leaned towards her as they were greeting each other; and based on her conversation with Martin in the car, she had decided that their relationship had progressed much further than either Joan or Martin had indicated. "Yes, nice to meet you also. It's been very pleasant catching up with Joan... and Martin, with what little time you've left him to us. I plan to leave in the morning. I must be back at work on Monday."

"Oh...sorry to hear you are leaving so soon. This evening will be noisy and hectic, but maybe we can find a little time to chat. Hmm?" Louisa really did want to get to know Ruth, maybe put a few more pieces of the Martin Ellingham puzzle together.

'Yes, I'd like that." Ruth had every intention of tracking Louisa down before the night was over.

Joan reached out to Louisa and cocking her thumb towards Martin, said, "Ruth may be complaining about your keeping this one busy, but I for one, have to thank you for keeping him occupied and out of my hair yesterday. I love having him around, but he's not much of a farmer."

"Oh, it's been my pleasure. We had a very nice time at his friends' boxing day open house."

"Must have been a long party. Martin didn't get back home until after we were in bed."

Martin had already explained to his aunts that they had stayed for supper and had a long catch up, but Joan wanted to get Louisa's version.

"Well, I guess it was a bit late. Chris and Michelle asked us to stay after the other guests had left to take supper with them. I quite enjoyed it, and it was a very interesting evening hearing all about their exploits in medical school. There was a huge crowd for most of the afternoon. Michelle told me that once Chris let it slip that Martin was coming, practically everyone on staff wanted an invite in order to meet him. Martin here," she nodded her head toward him proudly, "is evidently a rock star in the British medical community."

"Hardly", Martin blustered, reddening once again.

Joan looked up at him and with evident pride said, "He always was a brilliant lad."

"Aunty Joan, really! Let's go find our table."

"Actually, Martin, I saved a place for you at our table. Joan, would you mind if I commandeered Martin for the first part of the evening?"

"Certainly. You young people enjoy yourselves. Ruth and I will party with the senior citizens." Joan was perfectly happy to have Martin socializing with Louisa and her friends. In her opinion, he had been friendless for far too long.

Louisa took Martin's hand and led him over to her table. Stefan saw them coming and got up, "Martin, good to see you mate. Here have a seat. We were just about to go get some drinks now that they've set up the bar. Can I get you something?"

"Stefan", Martin nodded. "Just some water will do. Thanks."

Alicia jumped up to greeted Martin. He realized that once again she was planning to kiss him, and instead of recoiling, he leaned down to receive the kiss she planted on his cheek. "So nice to see you again Martin," she said as she grinned up at him pleased with herself at successfully greeting him properly. "Yes, Alicia," he replied with a whisper of a smile. Martin surprised himself at how comfortable he felt around Stefan and Alicia. Perhaps it was because they were well educated, with sophisticated tastes, people he could relate to. It didn't hurt that they knew him only as Louisa's friend, not as the unlikeable gruff and rude man he knew that he really was.

Louisa introduced Martin to the others at the table, "Martin, I'd like you to meet some other friends of mine, Caroline and Roger McCune. Roger is the science teacher at the school and Caroline teaches history at Wadebridge School. And of course you know Carrie."

Stefan came back with the drinks. Martin was anxious to thank him for his help in settling the title to Joan's farm. "Well, it's not finalized just yet, and it could still fall through, but I expect it to be complete within a few weeks." Stefan was confident, but cautious lawyer that he was, he wanted to make sure his client knew of possible roadblocks.

Martin nodded his understanding and replied, "I'm staying a few extra days to finalise the changes we want to make with the architect, get him started on the plans. Hopefully the title will be clear by early February so we can get started on the renovations."

"Weather permitting," chimed in Roger who had been listening to the conversation. "Winter in Cornwall isn't necessarily conducive to construction, you know."

"Hmm, yes", replied Martin, thinking this renovation might not be as easy as he had hoped.

At this point the master of ceremonies greeted the villagers and their guests, thanking everyone for all their hard work organizing the festivities and providing them with such a bountiful table, etc, etc. After an unnecessarily long speech about the completion of another successful year in the village, he finally asked the vicar to start them with a prayer of thanksgiving after which he invited the guests to approach the buffet table in an orderly fashion. And for such a large crowd, supper was served in a relatively efficient manner with only a few unruly children fussing with impatience whilst waiting in the queue. After the first such outburst, Martin scowled and said in what he thought was a confidential tone to Louisa, "Don't these children have any manners? Where are their parents?"

Louisa immediately placed her palm on his chest and gave him "the look", which quieted him down, but not before he leaned down and whispered in her ear, "You'll have to explain it to me later."

She just nodded with a grimace and a smile to the others nearby, and handed him a plate, as they had just about reached the front of the queue. Martin resumed his usual neutral expression and stood tall as he surveyed the victuals on offer. Joan and Ruth were not within earshot, but had watched this exchange with great interest. "Wonder what that was all about?" Joan said to her sister. "Whatever it was, I am certain that Louisa and Martin have a much closer relationship than either of us thought. It looked as if Martin was gearing up for a rant, and Louisa quieted him with just a glance. Amazing." Ruth nodded, "I agree. We'll have to keep an eye on them tonight."

All agreed that the cooks had outdone themselves this year. While Martin was horrified at some of the fried meats and heavy pasties and dishes laden with heavy cream and butter, even he was able to find much that was healthy and wholesome. He did observe however that those who could least afford to partake of the rich offerings were the ones most enjoying the extra butter and creamy gravies. And he couldn't help sharing this observation with the others at his table. Some of them had given into these temptations this evening, including Louisa, who then added, "I'm sure Martin is not referring to any of us." After she gave him a quick kick under the table, he added "No, no. Everyone here appears to have a healthy BMI."

Seeing the quizzical looks on several faces, Roger added, "BMI, body mass index. It uses a person's height and weight to provide an indication of body fat."

Roger continued, "We do a unit in our science classes on health and discuss the importance of healthy eating and exercise, where each student calculates his or her own BMI. Quite a few of the children have a BMI over 25, which indicates that they are overweight and at a higher risk of heart disease among other things. We discuss ways to get more exercise and how to choose healthy food. Of course there are times when we want to indulge, such as tonight. And we tell the kids that that's okay as long as they eat healthy most of the time."

Alicia chimed in, "But it's pretty obvious that not everyone eats a healthy diet all of the time, isn't it."

"True, true." Louisa agreed, but fearing that Martin might be encouraged to commence a lecture on the British people and their dietary habits, she smoothly changed the subject. "Speaking of getting more exercise, I plan to do a lot of dancing this evening. Anyone else?"

Laughing, Alicia and Carrie both agreed that the dancing would be the highlight of the evening. Rolling his eyes at the women, Martin just groaned.

Having successfully changed the subject to more festive topics, everyone continued to enjoy the evening. When the meal was over, Joan came over to greet everyone at their table and to ask permission to take Martin away for a short while. She wanted to introduce him to some of her friends and do some bragging about how successful he was. He remembered his manners and nodded to each one and said, "Nice to meet you." But it was finally too much for him, and he pulled Joan aside and spoke to her requesting that she cease introducing him as her nephew, the successful London vascular surgeon. 'Just introduce me as your nephew Martin. You can add, 'down from London' if you must, but please no discussion of my work. It's embarrassing."

'Very well, Martin. But you're taking half the fun out of it. All my friends have grandchildren to brag about and you're all I have...and I am terribly proud of you."

'Hmmm" Martin screwed up his mouth and nodded his head. "I see. I'm glad. But it's just my job, nothing special."

Joan just stared at him as looks of love, confusion and admiration crossed her face. She cupped his cheek in her hand and smiling said to him, "You always were a special little boy."

Several of Joan's oldest friends remembered Marty from his visits to the farm as a child. They were full of stories about his adventures with his Uncle Phil, how he learned to feed the chickens and gather the eggs, how he pulled all the beans before they had matured when he first learned how to harvest the vegetables, and how he helped tend the sheep. They laughed remembering him stomping around the muddy farmyard in his wellies that were a size too big.

He actually remembered one of her old neighbours, a Mrs. Pratt, because she would come over for tea; she and Joan would sit for an hour almost every day talking. She seemed delighted to see him, "I remember you so well. You were such a sweet little boy, quiet and shy, but always so polite and well behaved. I remember how you were always exploring the fields and digging around the yard, bringing home bugs and worms, caterpillars and butterflies. Joan, do you remember the time he brought home a frog? He couldn't wait to tell us about the time he dissected a frog and how the heart and all the other organs were organized inside the frog." Turning to Martin, she added, "You wanted to dissect that frog for us right there on the kitchen table, but Joan convinced you that living frogs were needed on the farm to catch flies and other bugs that could bother the sheep and chickens. You couldn't have been more than seven or eight. How many little boys that age even know the word 'dissect' let alone what the inside of a frog looks like?"

Martin smiled at the memory, "My grandfather gave me a frog to dissect on my fifth birthday. I do remember exploring the fields around the farm when I wasn't helping Joan or Phil."

"And you were a wonderful help to us both. We loved having you visit...the child we always wished we had."

Neither Joan nor any of her friends said anything about his bed wetting or how he sucked his thumb or cried when he got hurt, or any of his other shortcomings for which his parents constantly berated him. Their reminiscing brought back many wonderful memories, memories that had been buried years ago by the shame he had felt at being such a disappointment to his parents.

Whilst he was socializing with Joan and her friends, the dancing part of the evening was in full swing. Martin had noticed that Louisa had danced with several of the men there, but was taking a break and chatting and laughing with friends. He had wanted to ask her to dance but none of the songs seemed appropriate, then he heard the first bars of a song he instantly recognised as the song to which they had danced at their wedding in his dream. It only took a moment and he was at her side, leaning down and asking her if she would like to dance.

She smiled up at him...oh how he loved that smile...and told him that she would love to dance. He led her to the floor, taking her in his arms in that formal style he was taught at school. As they started to dance, she remarked that he seemed to be enjoying himself. "Yes, Aunty Joan and her friends were reminding me of all the good times I had when I visited her as a child."

She remarked that she loved this song, and he agreed, telling her that it reminded him of her. "Why is that" she asked. "Um...it just does," he replied as he slid his hand a few inches further across her back to hold her a little closer. He couldn't tell her the real reason the song reminded him of her and he couldn't tell her that the words had any special meaning because he couldn't remember what they were, something about sailing.

As he listened to the lyrics, he realised that they expressed some of his feelings for her, especially the lines "can you hear me, can you hear me/through the dark night, far away,/I am dying, forever crying,/to be with you, who can say". Now that he had found her, even though he was far away in London most of the time, he was trying so hard to be with her, and he pulled her even tighter as he heard those lyrics. She responded by laying her head against his chest and sighing. They continued to dance until the very last strains of music died and then pulled away. Looking down, too full of emotion to catch her eyes, he whispered, "Thank you". She whispered back, "Yes."

She took his hand and led him away from the dance floor over to another group of her friends. Even as she introduced him to this group, which included several more teachers from her school, she never let go of his hand which she held behind her back. Martin found this intimacy profoundly confusing and was even more tongue-tied than he usually was in the midst of new acquaintances. He felt a semblance of relief when Ruth came over to talk with Louisa. She noticed how their hands were interlocked and glancing up at Martin, inquired, "Mind if I borrow Louisa for a few minutes? I haven't had a chance to speak with her all evening."

"Uh...no..", quickly pulling his hand from hers, Martin bent down to get her attention, "Louisa."

She had been busy chatting with one of her friends, gossiping really, about another one of their fellow teachers whose companion for the evening was a rather flamboyant Spaniard. She was startled when she felt Martin pull away from her until she noticed Ruth standing next to him, "Oh hi, Ruth. How has your evening been so far?"

In her usual dry tone, Ruth replied, "Not as good as yours I suspect...Do you have a few minutes for a quick chat?"

Louisa blushed slightly at the implication, but quickly responded, "Yes, certainly. I was hoping we could get to know each other better while you were here tonight. Why don't we get a drink and find a quiet table." She glanced around the crowded noisy room, "perhaps quiet is hoping for too much, but someplace a little less raucous."

As they settled at a corner table, Ruth observed, "I see that you and Martin have become quite close this fall."

Unaccustomed to such directness, Louisa wasn't quite sure how to respond, "I guess we have become good friends, yes."

"More than good friends, from what I have seen this evening."

Well Martin had warned her that Ruth might be quick to see through to the heart of the matter, and she replied, "Not really ... well maybe a little. I'm not really sure we could ever be more than friends given that he is in London and I am here." "Now what made me say that?" Louisa wondered to herself.

"Hmm. Yes, long distance relationships can be difficult. Is that something you have thought about...with Martin I mean?"

"I don't know...a little, maybe. Has Martin said anything to you?"

"You know Martin. Getting anything personal from him is like getting blood from a turnip so to speak. He told me he enjoys your company, and that you both like to cook; oh... and that you are quite beautiful. He was right."

"Oh", Louisa looked down and started to blush.

Ruth raised her eyebrows and with a wry smile said, "Took all of my skill as an accomplished psychiatrist to pull that out of him."

Louisa laughed. She was starting to like this odd aunt of Martin's. "Yes, he isn't the most loquacious of men, is he?"

The two women continued talking. Again putting all her skills as an accomplished psychiatrist to use, Ruth asked Louisa about her role at the school, her friends and her parents, what it was like growing up in the village. Over the course of a few minutes conversation, she was able to assess the strength of Louisa's attachment to the village and whether she would be willing to leave it for a husband and family. Ruth was not convinced that Martin had the necessary qualities to lure such a lively, vital woman from her village.

For her part, Louisa asked Ruth about Martin as a young boy, what his family was like, how often they got together for birthdays and such. She was dismayed to discover that the family did not celebrate special days together, although they did talk at Christmas. Like Joan, Ruth had nothing good to say about Martin's parents. According to her they were cold and self-serving and never showed even the slightest interest in their son. She was of the opinion that Martin was not the aggressive hard charging man's man that her brother valued, and so he had washed his hands of him, ignoring Martin's many other accomplishments. She hadn't seen her brother or Martin's mother in years and she was perfectly happy to keep it that way.

Louisa found all this very unsettling; would a man with such a background be able to enjoy a loving family? She decided to take advantage of Ruth's professional knowledge. Would he be able to have a normal relationship, so she wondered out loud to Ruth, "What you've told me is very disturbing. Martin was neglected by his parents all his life? Is that why he has made his work the focus of his life? He seems comfortable around you and Joan, and he was relaxed around his friend Chris and his wife, but I know he'd rather have stayed home than come tonight. He has been very friendly with me, but I gather that is not his normal behaviour."

'Yes," Ruth interrupted her musings. "We have been surprised as well at his friendship with you. I'm sure there must have been other women in his life, but he has not shared them with either Joan or me...except of course for that woman in medical school. But I think that was as much an intellectual attraction as anything else." Suddenly she leaned in closer and asked, "Have you two been intimate?"

Shocked at what she perceived as a totally outrageous personal question, Louisa was at a loss for a reply and just looked at her wide-eyed. "Uh...um... that's...uh...really none of your business."

"You are quite correct. Please excuse me; I drifted into professional mode. It was completely inappropriate. But before we go, I do want to add that I see many men in my work at Broadmoor who have been neglected in the same way as Martin, and he could have ended up like them. But he hasn't. He is gruff, rude, and uncommunicative as a result of his upbringing, but he can also be very caring. His work requires that he care for his patients, and it is obvious to me that he cares for you."

"Hmm," Louisa had much to ponder and looking around for friends, left Ruth after thanking her for sharing her thoughts. She made her way to the drinks table to pick up another glass of wine and then wandered over to sit with Alicia. Soon after, Stefan and Martin joined them. Each bore an expression that was far too serious for the festive occasion, and Alicia teased them, "Where have you two been? Not talking business I hope."

Martin quickly replied, "No, we just went out for some fresh air."

"Yes, yes," Stefan was almost too quick to agree, but then added, "although it's starting to rain; might turn to sleet later. We should think about leaving soon."

"Yes, I have to drive my aunts back to the farm and the roads might start to ice up."

In any event, the evening was winding down and the DJ soon announced the last dance. Martin tilted his head with a look in his eyes that let Louisa know he wanted to take advantage of this last dance. She smiled back at him with a nod. He reached for her hand, and they walked to the dance floor. As he put his hand around her waist, he observed, "You seem suddenly quiet. I saw you talking with Ruth. Did she say something to upset you?"

"Oh let's not talk about that."

"Did she? ... Say something upsetting?"

"Not really. Are you still planning to take me to dinner tomorrow?"

"Most definitely. Shall I pick you up around half five?

"Yes, or maybe six". She smiled up at him, and he pulled her closer for the last few refrains of the song.

"Good."