Chapter 39

Mondays were always hectic at school. Exuberant children who were full of their weekend doings, not to mention staff with similar tales. Louisa was glad to extoll the beauties of Falmouth to whoever would listen. Eventually though, the final bell rang and she was able to go home.

Walking into the kitchen she was surprised to find Martin already preparing tea. "You're early. No patients to see?"

Martin turned, happy to see her. "I've had a few cancellations throughout the day which meant that I could bring a number of appointments forward. I told Pauline not to schedule any more in so that I could finish and cook tea for my beautiful wife!" He looked bashfully at her. "I didn't tack that end bit on, but I thought it."

Louisa laughed. "Well as you're doing tea I'll go and wash up, how long before it's ready?"

"About 40 minutes, or so."

"I've got time for a lay down then. All that exercise yesterday has tired me out!" She raised her eyebrows and saw his ears go pink. Some of that exercise wasn't in Falmouth.

Going quietly up to tell her tea was ready, he saw she was sound asleep. He was tempted to let her doze on but knew she wouldn't sleep properly later. "Louisa, Louisa," he called softly. Her eyelids fluttered and then opened. "Tea's ready. Are you coming?"

She yawned and then said she'd be down shortly.

He'd done some soup and crusty bread followed by glazed carrots and roast broccoli with a salmon steak. All optimally nutritious of course.

They ate in near silence, but began to chat over a drink of tea.

"Martin, what did you do when you were at Joan's in the summer holidays?"

He looked at her, somewhat surprised by the question. "As you saw in the photo of Phil and I, sometimes I was with him watching him doing the farm chores. Or I was with Auntie Joan in the veg patch, or helping her deliver them to the villagers. Often when I went with her, she would let me have a wander on the beach so I could look in the rock pools. Why do you want to know?"

"I was wondering what you could teach Junior when the time's right. I mean, I've no idea if you are good at drawing, or making things other than clocks, or building with those little plastic bricks? Can you play a recorder, or drums?"

"I probably could make things with the blocks, if there are instructions inside. I'm not sure if I could construct random things, though. I've never thought about it. I can sketch, but only rudimentary things. As for music I was taught to play piano at school, but I've not played for decades. What about you, what can you do?"

"Well as money was tight, I didn't have many toys. I can sew a bit; I can make up stories about animals. As you know, cooking is not my strong suit." She laughed. "I can make sand castles on the beach, but probably not to your exacting standards, I can also play jacks."

"What's jacks?" he asked, puzzled.

A jack is a 6-pronged small piece of metal. Four of the prongs have a knobbly tip. You play with 5 or 10 of them and you need a small ball. You kneel down on the smooth floor, holding the jacks in your hand and then scatter them in front of you. Depending upon where you are in the game you would throw the ball in the air and then scoop up a jack and catch the ball before it bounces more than once. Then you have to pick two jacks up at once, etc.

"Seems simple enough," he said.

There and then she silently vowed to get some.

"Did you do any birdwatching, or identify rocks or other things?"

Martin said, "I tried to spot all the butterflies in the British Isles. I can tell you the names of most of them around here. Uncle Phil took me out at night to look at the stars and the constellations. When you are up at the farm the sky is very clear." His face brightened as he realised, he already had a number of skills to impart to Junior.

Satisfied that she'd implanted some positive thoughts in him, Louisa went to do some marking, in readiness for the next day. She was checking the calendar and spotted that it was Valentine's Day, on the Tuesday of next week. I'll have to get a card and a prezzie for him, she mused. I bet that will be a novelty for him!

She sat at the kitchen table scrolling on her laptop, through some of the gift ideas for Valentines. Very little of what was on show even appealed to her, let alone a purist like Martin! She tagged a few pages and then got side-tracked onto a page devoted to puzzles and gizmos. As she looked at the assortment of puzzles, she decided that they would be suitable for part of his Christmas stocking and ordered a selection.

That still didn't solve the upcoming problem though. After looking through some more pages she started to giggle at the short outfits for men. Trying to picture Martin in one of those was more than rib-tickling. A movement in the hallway had her switching quickly to another page.

She turned and smiled, "Are you done for the night?"

"Yes, I've finished the accounts for the month. They seem to want more and more information as time goes by!"

"I fancy a cup of tea before bed, do you want one?"

"No thanks, Louisa. I'll just have a glass of water."

She shut down her laptop and then made herself her drink.

"I must phone Joan, tomorrow. Have you got anything you want me to tell or ask her?"

"No, I don't think so. Obviously, I hope she's well. Did you want to go and see her on Saturday afternoon? I could drop you off, if you do? I'm going into Wadebridge to get my haircut."

Louisa thought this was a good idea and accepted his offer. Having washed her cup, she went up the stairs to the bathroom. Martin locked up and followed her shortly afterwards.

"Joan, are you in on Saturday afternoon? I thought I'd come and visit while Martin goes for a haircut?"

Louisa listened as Joan said that would be fine. They agreed on 1:30p.m. She was talking to Pippa as they supervised the lunch-time play. A movement at the corner of her eye caused Louisa to turn in time to see a couple of boys start to wrestle. "Silly behaviour over here! Stop that at once." The boys pulled away from each other and stood sheepishly in front of her. "Now, what's got into the two of you, hmm?"

"Nothing, Mrs Ellingham. We were play-fighting." George explained.

"Well, we'll have no more of it unless you want to explain to your parents why you've been kept in after school?" she looked sternly at the two of them.

"No Mrs Ellingham," they chorused.

"Okay, off you go and play properly." She dismissed them, then turned with an amused smile on her face, to Pippa. "Boys!"

"Tell me about it," said Pippa who had twin boys at senior school. "It doesn't seem to be getting any better, either!"

After school instead of going straight home she went along to the newsagents and looked at their Valentine's Day cards. The selection wasn't great, but she found one which she hoped he would find acceptable.

At dinner that night with Martin, she told him about going to Joan's about half-one. He agreed that would be fine as his hair appointment wasn't until 2:30. He was pleased because it would give him a chance to get to the card shops without revealing his purpose to Louisa.

Martin went into the surgery carrying his cup of espresso. He heard the front door unlock and then Pauline entered. She took her coat off, dropped her bag under her desk, switched on her computer and then made for his office. "Doc, guess what?"

"Now what, Pauline, you know I don't play games?"

"Bert's coming home this afternoon!"

"Yes, the hospital phoned me yesterday to let me know."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"It wasn't my business to say anything. He may have had a relapse and been unable to come home. What would that do for my credibility?"

"Aww Doc, you could still have mentioned it to me! I am your Practice Manager, after all."

"Pauline, you are merely my receptionist and phlebotomist. You are NOT my Practice Manager."

She clumped back to her desk and opened the mail.

The rest of the morning went mundanely and Martin found himself wishing the day was over. When the telephone rang, he half-hoped it would be an unexpected call out. It was in one way.

Pauline came through and said "Bert's home. That was Al ringing to let me know."

"Thank you, Pauline. Next patient, please."

He stifled a sigh when Florence Dingley walked in. "Have a seat Mrs Dingley, what can I do for you?"

She took her smelly hat off and put it on his desk. "See my head? One of my cats scratched it and it's not clearing up," she whined.

Martin got up and took some rubber gloves out of a box on the side. Putting them on he tilted her head to get a better look. "Yes, it's infected. I'll write you a prescription for some shampoo and some cream to put on, after you've cleaned it thoroughly."

"Are you saying I'm not clean?" she demanded furiously.

"I'm saying that the scratch needs to be clean before you put the first lot of cream on. If you then cover it with a small gauze bandage that will keep it clean until the next lot of cream goes on." He pointed to the smelly hat and said "If you could avoid wearing that for a time, it would also be a good thing."

"Well really! I didn't come here to be insulted by you!" She rose to her feet, grabbed both her hat and the prescription and left in high dudgeon.

Martin just shook his head. "Why do I bother?"

Lunch time and Martin looked up in some surprise when Louisa walked in. "Hello."

"I need some TLC, NOW!" She smiled at him. "I've had a crap morning."

"Hmm, sounds similar to mine." He stepped forward and put his arms around her to give her a hug.

She relaxed into him and sighed contentedly. "You are the best medicine, for me." She felt him chuckle.

"Not my expertise as a GP?"

"Well, that does help, I suppose, but in the main this is what I need. Now, what's for lunch?"

"I can do you an omelette, if you want?"

"Yes please, but I've got to go upstairs first." She disappeared.

Martin quickly set to and made a couple of omelettes with a side of tomatoes, which were ready when she returned.

After some brief conversation they both went back to work.