Chapter 41
Martin took directions and realised he was much closer than he expected. He arrived at the house in only five minutes.
He knocked at the door and a harassed looking woman came to let him in. "Dr Ellingham?"
"Yes, and you are Mrs..?"
"Walters, Doctor. My son Laurence is the one you need to see. Come through." She led the way to the rear of the house where a young boy was sat in a chair looking sorry for himself.
"Hello Laurence, "said Martin gently. "What have you done?"
The boy looked up at him and said, "I fell from the tree and hit my head."
Martin could see the already blackening eye which was now partially shut, and a small bump on his forehead. "May I touch your forehead?" he enquired.
The boy looked quickly to his mother, who nodded. "Yes."
Martin carefully felt around the bump and eye socket, but couldn't detect any broken bones. "Laurence, look at my finger and when I move it from side to side, I want you to follow it with your eyes." When he performed the manoeuvre Laurence's eyes had no difficulty keeping track of his finger.
Martin turned to Mrs Walters, "I don't think Laurence has suffered any lasting damage, but you must watch him for the next twenty-four hours. Give him Calpol for the pain and put a cold pack on his forehead for 10 minutes or so every hour until tea-time. He will develop the black eye as the bruising builds, but that should start to fade in a day or so. Any questions?"
She tearfully thanked him and asked if he would be coming back to check up.
"No, I'm only on call here for the rest of the day. Call Dr Lewis if you're not satisfied with Laurence's progress. If he should develop more severe symptoms take him straight to A&E, but I don't think he will."
He stood up to leave and then told Laurence, "No more climbing trees young man, for the time being, understand?"
Timidly, Laurence nodded his head slightly.
Mrs Walters showed him to the door. "You were right to call me, head injuries in young children should always be checked."
"Thank you Doctor." With that she opened the door for him to go.
Martin checked his phone, but there were no further messages. He headed to Portwenn, looking forward to spending some time with his wife.
Louisa looked up from preparing the veg to greet him as he came in. "Hi, where have you been?"
"As I said, over on the far side of Wadebridge. Pretty little village, St Breocks. Then I was called again to go to Gonvena district, of Wadebridge."
"Well at least the calls were in roughly the same location," remarked Louisa.
"I'm going to email Dr Lewis with my notes and then I'll go and wash up. What time's dinner?"
"It'll be ready in another hour, is that OK?"
"Yes, that's fine." He went off to the surgery to prepare the case notes.
He was just finishing washing up when she called him down for dinner. Looking at the table he saw tuna steaks with an assortment of roasted veg, one of his favourite meals. "This looks good, thank you."
"Well," she said "you have to keep your strength up." Then she giggled when the ramifications dawned upon him.
A rainy Monday kept the patients at home and so a number of appointments were rearranged. It also kept the children inside which made for a cacophony of noise throughout the day. By the end of the day Louisa was glad to be going home. She'd escaped lunchtime duty and had slipped out for some necessary groceries and fresh fish. A quick call into the supermarket enabled her to get some wrapping paper for Martin's book.
She hurried, as best she could, up Roscarrock Hill to arrive slightly breathless at the cottage.
"Louisa! What's the matter?" asked Martin when he saw how breathless she was.
"Well, it may have escaped your attention, but the hill isn't getting any less steep, the wind is blowing quite hard and I'm more than 3 months pregnant! You figure it out!" she snapped at him.
Martin, who at times could be extremely dense when it came to the female psyche, reassessed his next remarks and closed the distance between them to relieve her of the shopping bags and then give her a warm hug.
"Hmm, sorry I snapped at you."
"Well after last night, I'll forgive you," he whispered in her ear. It was Louisa's turn to blush.
"I've only got two more patients to see, so if you want, you go and relax and I'll cook dinner tonight."
"Thank you, Martin. That will be good." Louisa made herself a cup of tea and retired to the couch. It wasn't long before she was sound asleep.
Dinner was a simple affair of soup with crusty bread followed by fresh fruit. Louisa was grateful because she hadn't felt like eating a full dinner. Martin quickly washed up and joined her on the couch to drink his tea.
He then got up and went out to reception, bringing a parcel back with him. "This came for you earlier.
"Thanks, Martin. It's just a book I ordered." She put it on the coffee table and left it. They resumed their talk and Louisa was telling him about seeing the Large's and how much weight Bert had lost.
"Good to know," said Martin, "but I don't suppose this will last too much longer. Once he gets a sight of those desserts, I'm sure he'll fall off the wagon." Martin's opinion of Bert's willpower wasn't very high.
"I'm going to look at my accounts and then I'm going to tinker with my clock. Do you want anything before I go?" Martin asked solicitously.
"No thanks, I've got a small amount of marking to do, and then I'll read."
He went off, while Louisa did her marking. She wrapped the present up for Martin and went upstairs to put it in the drawer under his card for tomorrow. Collecting her book, she went back downstairs to read.
Martin gave a cursory look at the accounts and decided he would wait until next week to reconcile them. He got the card out for Louisa and wrote his message, before sealing it up. Next, he got out a picture frame containing the prints that Louisa had admired in the gallery in Falmouth. He hoped she'd like it and decided to leave it to her as to where it should hang. He wrapped it up carefully, leaving it and the card on his desk.
Returning to the lounge he asked, "Do you want a drink, before bed?" She glanced at the time and saw it was after 9:00 and decided not to bother. These days she was going to the loo often enough during the day and didn't want to have to start going through the night as well. "No thanks, Martin, I'm fine. In fact, I'm going up to bed now. Someone tired me out last night and I need my beauty sleep."
He smiled at her joke, then said bashfully, "You don't, you know. You are always beautiful to me."
Louisa beamed at him, "Thank you."
Martin pottered about before locking up and going upstairs himself. As he'd expected, Louisa was sound asleep, snoring quietly. Quietly he went to the bathroom himself and was soon back in bed snuggled up to his wife.
The next morning, Martin awoke slowly to the sensation of kisses along his jawline. "Hmm," he murmured.
"Happy Valentine's Day, Martin," purred Louisa.
He put his arm around her and pulled her closer. "I think I could get very used to this, no matter what the day." What began as exploratory kisses escalated and soon, they were in the throes of passion.
When at last they broke apart they both had a look of contentment on their faces. Martin's hand traced the outline of her jaw and then meandered south. Her eyes shone up at him as she inched closer to hug him tightly. Together they just lay there savouring the moment.
Martin's alarm going off rudely shattered their peace. Sighing he reached out and switched it off. "I suppose I'd better get up," he said, "although I'd rather stay here with you."
She pushed him back onto his pillow and told him to stay there. Going across to her chest of drawers she retrieved her presents and gave them to him.
He looked up at her, his eyes betraying how much he felt. He opened the card first and read "to my husband on our first Valentine's Day. I love you very much. Louisa" followed by a single "x".
Then he opened the parcel to see the horology biography and was delighted with both it, and the thought which had gone into it. "Thank you, Louisa," he said huskily.
They got up and Martin used the bathroom first before going down to make breakfast. Louisa followed not long after. She spotted the wrapped present on the table and gave a squeal of delight. Looking at him she said "Is that for me?" He nodded and said, "Careful, it's fragile."
Feeling the weight of it she gently turned it over and began to undo the wrapping. Then she turned it back over and removed all the paper. Her emotions were on a roller-coaster as she took in what was in the parcel. She was delighted with the prints and especially the subject matter. There were the "rectangular sheep, and the big red heart hiding in the trees. There were the working men going off to the footie match, and the men with their children looking at the bridge over the river."
"I saw that you really liked these prints, so while you were off at the toilets, I bought them. I had them framed here. You can hang the picture up wherever you want."
She went around the table and gave him a proper thank you kiss. On going back to her seat, she found the card and read it through misty eyes. "Thank you, Martin, it's lovely."
Over breakfast they discussed the positioning of the picture and decided that in the lounge area would be the right place for the quirky prints.
After breakfast, and with a final kiss, they both went off to work.