Chapter 26

Time was passing and the end of the school year was getting closer and closer. Martin, after careful consideration, chose June 20th for the wedding date.

aHad He spent one evening in the consulting room writing prescriptions and finishing a lengthy report. When he came out, Louisa was seated on the sofa, papers and books spread all around her, calculator out and a look of utter frustration on her face.

He glanced at the books and saw that they were advanced trigonometry and calculus. "What's wrong? You look aggravated."

She held her head in her hands and moaned "It's this bloody math! When I was at uni, I learned to teach math for primary school children, certainly not this stuff!"

"Why do you have to teach it now?"

She gave a frustrated sigh and answered "We have an exceptionally bright student who is trying to earn a full scholarship to Oxford. And I mean full! The winners will stay in private homes, have mentors and, since she's so young, even a companion. We haven't had a student like her since Peter Cronk moved out of the district. She's having trouble and I can't help. I'm thinking of trying to contact one of my uni professors and ask for help."

"Let me take a look at it. I was always good in math and science." he offered.

She looked doubtful "Thank you Martin but this is really advanced stuff."

His answer was dry "I can see that but, as I said, I was good in math and science. What can it hurt to let me look at it?"

Still doubtful, she got up to make tea and he sat down in her place. "Show me what problem she's having trouble with."

"It's written on the pad next to you. Tea?" He nodded yes and studied the problem while she made them both a hot, hot cuppa – just the way he liked it.

"Excuse me, I want to check my schedule." He left the room for a few minutes and then took his seat again. "I'm not on call this week and have no appointments so I can see her any evening after the surgery closes. Unless there's an emergency of course."

"Well, sure! Do you really think you can help her?" she asked in amazement.

"Yes. I was assigned to tutor other students in any subject for which they needed help in my later years at public school."

She stepped behind his chair and hugged him. "You are a never ending source of surprises! Delightful surprises!" Then she whispered in his ear before running her finger around it "And you're also very good in the sack! Thank you!"

Instead of blushing and grunting like he used to do, he kissed her hands and whispered "Let's go take our shower and I'll work on surprising you again." And he winked! She giggled and ran for the stairs before he warned her about the dangers of taking them too fast. "Yes, boss!" and she walked slowly and sedately up the stairs, swinging her bum while he watched in admiration. He locked up before joining her in the shower and he did manage to surprise her again.

The next day she called the girl's parents to explain to them what Martin had volunteered to do and to get their permission.

They were surprised at the offer and asked "Are you sure the Doc wants to help our Jane? I mean, you know how…well, everybody knows how the Doc is."

Louisa answered with a smile in her voice "Yes, I know he can be rude and grumpy but you have to admit that he never fails to aid people in trouble. Right?"

"Well, yeah. Of course we agree with that. What time does he expect her and how often?" Jane's parents were honest, hard working and good hearted people. Some of the best in the village.

"Can you bring her to the surgery at 7:00 and pick her up at 9:00 Wednesday evening, this week? Two hours should give them a good start. And, if you agree, I'll tell her about it today. Martin will let you know whether or not she needs more help."

As Louisa expected them to do, they hurriedly agreed.

Jane arrived at the surgery promptly at 7:00. Louisa met her at the door and they exchanged pleasantries. "Alright then, ready to get started?" Louisa asked brightly.

"Yes, very ready. Is he grumpy today? I mean more grumpy than normal?" Jane asked with complete calm. He wasn't the least intimidating to her because they were so much alike.

"No, not at all. Why should he be? Come this way please. Jane, this is Dr. Ellingham. Martin, this is Jane Tregaskis." Louisa wouldn't admit it to anyone but she was a little nervous. They were both rude and could be obnoxious. Please, no explosions!

"Hello," Jane said. "You gave me medicine when I had the flu last year. It tasted terrible."

"Well, let that be a lesson to you: don't get the flu." was his response.

The studied each other before he said "Ready to start? Show me your problem and let's see what we can work out."

Jane shoved the book across the table and pointed to it. Martin nodded, then asked "And you've tried to solve this yourself? Do you really not see the answer?" He wanted to assess of the level of her knowledge.

"No," Jane said. "If I did, I wouldn't be asking, would I?"

Martin raised an eyebrow and looked more closely at Jane. "Aren't you a bit young for trigonometry? Thought kids your age were still eating crayons in school."

"I'm very advanced," she answered "Like you".

He grunted and asked "Try to solve it again so I can see what you're doing wrong."

Jane nodded and dutifully went through the problem.

"There's your error," he said. "Wrong formula."

"It's Pythagorean's Theorem," she protested. "Given two sides of a triangle, find the third. Easy enough."

"But this isn't a right triangle, is it?" he replied. He pulled over her textbook, flipped through it, and put his finger on an equation. "That's the one you want: Law of Cosines."

Jane stared at it thoughtfully. "Oh."

"And it works for right triangles, too, because -"

"Because the cosine of pi over two is zero, so that term drops out. So, yes... side BC is fourteen and... fourteen point six. And a bit."

Ellingham eyed her. "You don't need a calculator for that?"

"No," Jane replied. "Do you?"

"Cheeky," he muttered, but without rancor. "Well, let's see you prove it."

He got out his scientific calculator for her to use and she eagerly worked the problem as he watched, nodding his head in approval. She finished and, smiling hugely, handed him the results.

*"Correct. You've done very well. Right then. Let's continue. But why didn't you bring your calculator with you? You must have known that you would need one."

"My parents can't afford to buy me one right now. Maybe next month."

"I'll furnish one for you. Just keep the one you're using."

She looked cautious and asked "You said 'furnish one for you'. Are you giving this to me or is it a loan?"

"It's yours. You'll be required to have one in your classes."

"It looks new. Thank you. I'll take good care of it." She didn't expect treatment like this and looked guilty for her previous thoughts about him.

He noticed her expression and asked "What's wrong?"

She sighed and admitted "I thought that you were going to be rude because you didn't really want to get involved with something like this. I was wrong. I'm sorry and thank you for helping me."

"Humph!" His usual response to thanks or compliments.

"This child is something special." He thought to himself. "And I've met two of them in this village. Not just dim wits after all."

They worked steadily for the next hour and a half, both enjoying the process.

"Your parents are supposed to pick you up at 9:00, correct? And your test is six weeks from now so I need to speak to them about further sessions. I think you're mature enough to realize that you'll need to study hard a lot on your own. Is there another subject that you're worried about or need help with?"

She nodded and answered "Yes, I know I have to study. And can you help with chemistry and physics? And I won't be tested on it but I'm really interested in anatomy. Can we add it to the list if we have time?"

"Of course I can. I think we'll need three sessions a week but they won't be on a regular schedule because of my practice. If your parents agree, are you willing to work with my schedule? Good. Give me your email address and that's how we'll communicate."

He walked to one of the bookcases and pulled out some books and handed them to her. "Chemistry and anatomy. Probably more in depth than you need but you should acquaint yourself with them. More than likely they'll be on the list of required textbooks at Oxford. Next session I'll have one on physics for you. Anything else?"

"No, not that I can think of." Her eyes were bright and she handled the books like they were great treasures.

"Humph! Let's go see if your parents are here." He was impressed with her behavior and could remember being the same way himself when given new books. He loved studying and stretching his abilities. He would wager that she was the same.

Jane's parents readily agreed to have her at the surgery for any session that he had time for. They shyly thanked him. "You're helping our girl and that means we're in your debt. Anything, any time you need something, you just call on us."

Martin was still called out on emergencies and quite often missed the sessions. They made them up, sometimes even on Sundays. He thought her progress was remarkable. Louisa watched their interaction and wondered where Martin was and what 'they' had done with him? He was obviously committed to this project and talked about it with so much enthusiasm! She encouraged his interest, even asked him for teaching tips.

When the time came for her to take the test, Martin felt that she was ready. "You've worked hard and done very well. I don't think you'll have any trouble with the tests. Let me know how you do." Neither bothered to say good bye or any other pleasantry. It just wasn't part of their make ups.

During this time, plans were made for the wedding. Louisa had already talked to Bert about the catering and they worked out a menu of simple finger foods and what drinks would be served. Samuel Smith's Organic Hard cider was the extent of the alcoholic beverages allowed by Martin, the rest punch and water. Bert was determined to furnish it free since he was her father but she argued adamantly against it. "Bert, I know you love me as much as I love you but this restaurant won't support your giving away that much food and drink. So, no!" She hugged him and kissed his cheek "Thank you but Martin and I will pay for it. Now if you could get two or three people to carry around trays and wear sort of uniforms, that would be great. Get them as cheap as you can and they should wear black pants, white dress shirts with black kerchiefs. Can you take care of that if I furnish the kerchiefs?"

"Sure I can lovely but at least let me pay for that. And I'll give you a break on the food and drink, too. I got my pride you know."

"All right, I'll agree to that but not too much of a break." Seeing his stubborn expression, she said teasingly "Remember, you're saving money for James Henry's education. So don't hurt yourself with your 'break'".

"We'll see. Would you like to have the reception here? How many people are you invitin' anyway?" He was still determined to do everything possible for his girl's wedding.

"I'm not sure, around twenty or thirty I guess. But, you know that a lot of people will just show up anyway. Let me talk to Martin about where we want to hold it but I'm thinking the hall. I'll let you know. Later!"

Martin agreed that the hall was the best place for the reception. She called and reserved it for the afternoon. Then there was the dj for the music, the decorations, flowers, rings and her dress. Not enough time!

Morwenna and Sally came to the rescue with the decorations. Her colors were peach and white – easy enough. Joan insisted that she would take care of the flowers.

Al recommended a dj and was given the go ahead to reserve him for the afternoon.

Martin took her to Truro and they chose plain matching wedding bands. She knew him well enough to choose the simplest gold bands. The gold matched the engagement ring he gave her.

All that was left was the dress. She arranged to meet Brenda and Caroline for lunch, again, in Truro. After they finished eating, they went to one of the best dress shops in town and struck gold. Her dress had an empire waist to accommodate her growing belly, was white, ankle length, with elbow length sleeves and the bodice was embroidered with tiny pearls. The veil was a simple, mid length and fell from a tiara encrusted with the same tiny pearls. She had Martin in mind when she chose the shoes – white satin pumps with low heels and rounded toes. All in all, her wedding outfit was beautiful and the girls assured her that she looked beautiful in it.

When she asked Martin if he was going to rent a tuxedo, he replied that, why should he do that when he had a black suit but he would get a new tie.

Neither thought about the organist but, unbeknownst to them, it was taken care of. Oh boy! Were they in for a surprise.

So, the wedding was set to take place in eight weeks. She was getting more and more excited and he was a mixture of feelings. Relieved. Confused. Incredulous. She was going to be his wife. Sometimes he still had trouble accepting the fact that this remarkable, intelligent and beautiful woman was going to tie herself to him and they were having a child together. A lifetime of self doubt and loneliness was hard to overcome.

It had been weeks since he thought about his 'problems' and spent his counseling sessions describing Jane and how quickly she learned difficult problems and concepts. His blood phobia was hardly ever mentioned. Leslie went along with it, waiting for another break through. He never thought he would see Martin Ellingham this relaxed and happy. The wedding date was a little over two weeks away and Martin invited him and his wife to attend if they could. Smiling, Leslie assured him that they would be there.

*My son and the web contributed the trigonometry section. It's way above my head but it's part of my fantasy for Doc's development. I hope I didn't screw it up.