Chapter 9 – The Teacher III

I had just finished the washing up when I heard a step outside my door. Sneering, for it was likely some wayward patient, ready to pounce on me, I jerked the kitchen door open ready to bite their head off. "Surgery is clos…" I was shouting but stopped when I saw Louisa standing there. "Louisa."

Her eyes were open wide. "Sorry Martin, for intruding."

"That's alright… you're not intruding. Come in."

She stepped inside and catching a glimpse of clean dinner things in the sink, she said, "Dinner hour is over."

"You know that I eat early."

She grinned. "Your carbohydrate curfew. I recall that." She bit her lip.

"Have you eaten?"

"No, I worked late," she sighed. "Paperwork; the school. I'll eat later."

"Right."

She rolled her neck and touched the side of it with her right hand. "And I have a sore neck from bending over it."

"Do you want me to examine you?"

She was rubbing what must be the sore spot, but her hand fell away from it. "That's not why I came."

"Right. What can I do for you?"

She glanced off to the side at a chair. "Shall we sit?"

I skirted around her, pulled out a kitchen chair and indicated she should sit. "This okay, or would you prefer a softer chair?"

"No, no. Fine, this is fine." She sank down and did I hear a little sigh as she sat down. Her back must be aching as well.

"Do you have a backache?" I asked as I sat opposite her. My god she was beautiful. Face, skin, silky hair… I forcefully stopped my inventory of her womanly charms, but my heart was beating fast. Quite fast.

She arranged the folds of her dress, but there was no hiding her months long pregnant belly and baps. "Little bit."

"Louisa, an expanding uterus puts strain on the back as the hormone relaxin loosens maternal ligaments and cartilage. The shift in center of gravity as well as lordosis, the throwing back of the shoulders, all put added strain on the lumbar region. Is that where it hurts?"

She blinked her eyes at me. "Mar-tin, I didn't come to see you for a medical consultation, exactly, but yes, my back does ache down low."

So why did she come? "A hot pad, careful stretching exercise, and wearing low heeled shoes may help your, uhm, pain in that area. Taking a long soak in warm, not hot, water, may also help. An analgesic could also be useful and won't harm the baby."

Louisa leaned forward, shook her head, and gazed at me. "It's you."

"What do you mean?"

She bit her lip a little then looked off to the side. "I heard you had a… well, a moment… in the co-op market. You yelled at poor Joe Penhale."

The gossip telegraph was working too well. I stared back at her. then I lied. "I had a call on my mobile in the market, that much is true… and I suppose I did get upset, at Joe."

She sighed then reached over the table to touch my hand. "Martin, I know what the village can be like. Always under intense scrutiny. Who's dating who or just broke it off, who got cross in public; all that. Lord knows I had my share of all that because of mum and dad." She stared at a spot in the distance past my left ear. "And none of that was any fun." He eyes wandered back to mine. "But there were people who helped me at those times. Joan Norton was one of the helpers and I thank God for her. All those helpers made sure I got over it or at least over the bad patches."

I started to pull my hand away, but she grasped it, saying, "Mar-tin, I and, others do worry about you. I know that you have your moments, but… all in all." She pointedly looked down at her midriff, or lack thereof. "This, uhm, me, the, my being pregnant with your – our – child can't be immensely helpful to you. I do not marry you. I leave the village. Then I'm back in the village. And preggers. Not married and having been engaged, tongues will wag."

I nodded briefly. "Right."

"More than awkward, I'd say."

I cleared my throat for I'd not wanted any of this to happen. "Louisa, I…" I stopped myself. How can I reply? What can I say to her? There was nothing I could say to stop the gossips or buoy up my sinking heart each time I was near her. I knew that it was all ruin. Devastation. A wasteland of hopes.

"So," she said after a long pause, "you asked me to marry twice, if I'm counting properly, and each time I said no. That is after I came back to Portwenn. Three times in all."

My mouth went dry.

"But we can't go on pretending that we'd be any good for one another, can we?" she said softly. "We have to draw a line under it and move on. Face forward, one foot in front of the other."

"Move on," I murmured.

Her eyes went wide. "Oh, so you agree."

"Louisa, if I had known that…" my hand slipped from her and sort of waved towards her pregnant belly, "that us getting together would have made all this… mess…"

"Mess?" she bristled. "This is a child Mar-tin! Our child. And it's not a mess. I will have my child and raise it on my own, and you can do whatever you need to do. However, I will expect the proper amount of support." She sighed then. "it's just so bloody hard at times, for me, and that's one reason I came to speak to you. I know it's bloody hard for me, but it must be for you as well."

Hard. Awkward. Difficult. Too right, but I was not the one who was pregnant. I would never suffer the pangs of birth, and then nurse, nappy, and raise up our child for the next eighteen or more years. I could only send money, give help on a weekend when available, but all the more problematic when I was in London, if I was up to London. "Uh, Louisa, you said, one reason?"

She shook herself. "Right." She crossed her arms under her bust. "I can arrange the right moment for you to come to my school and speak to Frank's classmates."

I must have looked stunned for a moment, for she added, "Frank? Frank Marrack? Your patient?"

"Right," I nodded. "Just let me know when it is convenient, and I'll come to the school. I'll have Pauline put it on the schedule." But the phrase 'one reason' stuck in my head. I stared at her lovely face. "And Louisa, I know it is not a mess, and I didn't mean that you or the baby are a mess." I took a deep breath. "I will help you however I can." If you will let me I added to myself.

Louisa stood. "Good then. Glad we had this little chat."

I looked up at her. "And yes, things for me have been difficult, but not as difficult as it must be for you."

Louisa tossed her hair. "Miss Glasson got herself pregnant, someone told me. Did you know that?"

"That's outrageous!"

"And the teenage girls giggle behind my back."

I got up and looked down into her face. "I am sorry. I apologize for their rude behavior."

She smiled and patted my cheek. "You are a good man, Martin. Never let anyone try to convince you otherwise."

I took her hand in mine. "And you are an excellent woman, Louisa Glasson."

Her beautiful head nodded. "Thanks for that." She sighed. "It does a girl good to hear that occasionally. Best be off."

I walked her to the door and around to the front of the house.

She turned at the step. "The school secretary will call with a time for your little talk with the kids. Bye then."

Through dry lips, I muttered, "Goodbye."

Then I watched as she walked down the lane until she turned the corner at the Platt. Damn, I thought. Damn it all.