Louisa had both girls in her arms and was pacing the room as Martin closed the door. He turned to see her face beet red and her grip on the girls like she was afraid Mrs. Tishell was going to take them. Quietly, as he composed himself, he walked toward her, trying to slow her from her angry pacing. He softly put his hand on her shoulder, and with that, she looked up at him, her big eyes meeting his, and she instantly started to cry. Martin almost melted at the sight; Louisa always had a special place in his heart, even more so right now.
"I'm so sorry, Martin! I've made a mess of things and just embarrassed you in your surgery. I told the entire village about our private affairs and let that horrid woman get the best of me."
"Shh, shh, shh," he said, pulling at the closest baby, Sadie. He took her in his arms, moved her to the swing in the corner, and then he went back for the second. Louisa still stood there, almost dumbfounded, looking to the floor, not wanting him to see her cry, and she was unaware he'd pulled the second baby out of her arms. Only when Eliza started to fuss in protest did Louisa look up and see that Martin now had her in his arms. She shook her head, trying to come to grips with reality.
"Sadie?" Louisa asked, truly horrified she had almost blanked out and missed the interaction. Martin gave a small nod of his head toward the swing. Louisa's eyes moved that way, and she let out her breath as she nodded too. "Right, sorry. Martin," she looked up again.
"Louisa," he said firmly, a small frown on his face as he stood there jiggling the baby. He'd gotten much better at that having learned from James. He still wasn't into prancing around with the baby in a dance like Louisa enjoyed doing, but he had finally mastered jiggling a baby slightly to quiet her. He waited until her eyes met his, "Edith is gone. I'm sorry she upset you."
"Upset me?" Louisa asked, her voice almost a squeak. "Martin, she said horrible things about you, apparently conspired with your mother to try and seduce you, and she hoped to use you as a pawn for high society in London. Upset me?"
"Yes," he said simply as he nodded, no expression on his face. "I'm worried about you. Edith has no effect on me."
"I don't know how you can be so forgiving," Louisa said, rolling her eyes as she used her hand to wipe her face. She looked at him again, "I'm sorry, Martin. I hate to admit this, but I've always been a little jealous of her, and today, I suppose it all came out."
Martin's eyes widened listening to his wife's admission. He stammered, still jiggling the baby, as he tried to answer, "I'm sorry, but what? Why are you jealous of Edith? I don't understand. Edith." At the mention of her name, he made a disgusted face and spat out her name.
Sadie started to fuss, and Louisa, who had now regained her composure, went to her daughter and picked her up. She turned back to Martin and saw that he was still awaiting an answer. She rolled her eyes and shook her head; her ponytail shook as she did so.
"I don't know, Martin. I mean," she gestured to the kids, "I did carry your children. We did get married. I love you, and I know you love me. I suppose it goes back to feeling a bit," she said and sighed, nodding, "okay, maybe feeling a lot of insecurity regarding Edith. She rubbed me the wrong way and was quite insensitive during my pregnancy. Why do you think I requested a midwife? I had to get out of that bloody clinic, away from her claws. I mean," she gestured with her free hand, Sadie watching her mother's hand as she did, "you ran off the midwife too, which yes, she was a bit much, but she had been better than Edith Montgomery as my doctor. It was a bad time for you and me. Edith was in the middle of it, and the thought of you two, well," she closed her eyes and let out her breath, "you two together-"
"I didn't sleep with her!" Martin exclaimed, instantly calming his voice as he thought about the patients on the other side of the surgery door. "I need you to understand that."
"Right, I know," Louisa paced. "At the time, I didn't know that, none of it really. I know that after we decided to get married for real that time, you told me about everything with her, that she'd invited her way into your life. You told me about her believing you had a fear of intimacy. I remember all of that."
"What I didn't tell you then," he frowned, his eyes meeting hers, "and only because we were getting to a good place and didn't want to put the wrong ideas in your head, is that she did try that approach with me. I just walked away. It was that incident that she said I had a fear of intimacy. I am sorry that I never explained it all in context, but perhaps with all of this now, it is good you know."
Louisa's eyes widened at that, and she let out a little gasp, "What? She did try to take you to bed? Here, in our home?"
"No," he frowned. "Ahh, she may have wanted professional help on her research to start, but looking back, I realize that she wanted to get close to me, to well,"he rolled his eyes, "get me back to London as she stated. It is clear to me she had plans to latch onto me as the top surgeon at Imperial."
"You didn't answer my question, at least the one about where," Louisa told him. "Please."
"Oh, right," he frowned, looking down. "It was the night of your baby shower, and I remember that because of though of you going to that as I drove out of town. The village had a party for you, for the baby, for our baby, and I just drove away, not that I like parties, but I know now that was wrong. That night, I was to attend her lecture at a medical conference. I believed I had booked my own room at the hotel. She had other plans. Louisa," he sighed, stepping toward her and locking eyes with her, "please understand that I thought about everything in that moment. You and I were at such odds, but I could not go through with it. I could only think of you, and even though then I couldn't have you as mine, I knew I didn't want Edith; I didn't want anyone else. It was then I realized I was better to be miserable alone if I couldn't be with you. I didn't know it at the time, but I was finally coming to the idea that London was a bad idea, surgery was a bad idea, that leaving you was a bad idea, and it just took me time to process that, well," he fumbled, "that and James' speedy arrival."
Louisa gave him a warm smile and a nod, "Thank you, Martin. Thank you for telling me all of that. I can venture to guess that Edith blew in here as she just did? I suppose she didn't like the rejection?"
"Umm, yes," he nodded, recalling the interaction. "That was when she told me I had a fear of intimacy. I told her I did not, but she couldn't believe that I just didn't want to be with her."
Louisa nodded again, stepping even closer to him. The girls there in their arms separated them, and she leaned up to kiss his cheek, "I do love you, and I cannot tell you how sorry I am about this entire afternoon. The gossip in this village will spread, and our personal lives, our," she grimaced, "intimate, private lives will be all over the village."
"Yes," Martin said crisply. "I suppose, though, it will not come as a shock to the village that we conceived James rather quickly."
Louisa chuckled, nodding in agreement, "Right, what did I say? I believe I said that you got me pregnant by just looking at me."
"Medically impossible," Martin shook his head, disagreeing with her.
"It's a figure of speech, Martin, just meaning that we have a beautiful little boy even after taking precautionary measures."
"Yes, well, contraception is not 100% effective," Martin pointed out.
Louisa reached out for his hand and clasped it in hers, "True, and I will gladly admit it was the best failure we could have ever had. You know, I've always thought, well, after we were good, you and I, that it was quite funny that the esteemed Doctor Ellingham had the contraceptive failure. You talk about it with many of your patients, and then, well," she nodded.
"Yes, right," he sighed and started to blush. "It gave the bloody villagers just one more thing to tease me about here, hmm? Speaking of patients, are you alright now?"
"Yes, Martin," she said, letting out her breath. "I am, and I must say I am really proud of how you handled this. You didn't let Edith get to you, and you and I were able to talk through it even though I know I quite embarrassed you."
Louisa moved to collect both girls and leave Martin to his work. She leaned up to kiss him again, and he surprised her by turning slightly and wrapping his hand around her back, pulling her in for a longer kiss. He looked down at her, "I do love you, only you, well, James, Eliza, and Sadie too, oh, as well as Ruth."
"Yes, Martin," she chuckled. "We all love you. The kids love their daddy, and I very much love my wonderful husband." She patted his arm and walked to the door. Before she opened it to the awaiting village, Martin called out to her again.
"Louisa?" Martin said from where he had moved to his medical kit. She turned, a questioning glance on her face.
"While I am not approving of sharing our intimate affairs with the village, should you ever feel the need to lash out at my horrid mother should she reappear-" he gestured with his hand. Louis's face broke into a huge grin.
"I'll gladly defend your honor, husband."