Chapter 13 Guess who is coming to dinner
The welcome at the B&B had been most agreable and their room at the Clé d'Opale was spacious and meticulously cleaned, just the way Martin liked it. Louisa, since her youth used to tiny shower cabins, immediately fell in love with the beautiful bathroom, equiped with a very modern shower and luxurious accessories.
There was enough space for James to play and to crawl around. Doing so, his little knees were polishing the beautiful wooden floor with the soft fabric of his jumpsuit.
Martin had a little struggle with his carbohydrate curfew, because dinner time in France starts at nineteenhundred at the very earliest, but at last they could make the small walk to a nearby restaurant that was recommended by the owner of the B&B.
'Bonjour', the waiter at the entrance said, 'bienvenu à la Cuisine de Calais, welcome in our restaurant', he showed them the way to a table near the window. Nearby, a table for ten persons was set, but not yet occupied. Fearing that the evening wouldn't be as quiet as he hoped, Martin frowned when he saw it, but refrained from making a comment - he didn't want to spoil the evening.
'Avez-vous une chaise haute pour notre fils', Louisa asked. The waiter nodded and walked away to fetch a highchair for James.
From frowning, Martins face turned to questioning..'Where did you learn to speaak French like that, Louisa?'
'Well, at home, a few years ago, I got myself into an e-learning module.. Never practiced it in RL though'
'RL?'
'Real Life, Martin. As soon as I knew we would take the Chunnel, I reviewed some of the lessons.
'Oh... Well, you can practice it now.. I don't understand much of the menu. It's rather a long time ago, since I spoke French for the last time'.
Louisa gladly replied to this request and together they browsed the menu from starters to desserts.
In the end, Martin chose a carpaccio of scalops as a starter and Louisa went for the fish soup. Then both of them opted for sole meunière.
'Do you know what that means, Louisa, meunière?'
'In fact it is literally millers sole', Louisa explained. 'Fresh sole is battered with a small film of flour and almond rasp and then fried in a pan. The flour and the almonds give the fish a very thin crispy crust. Full of good proteins'
'Good, what about James Henry?'
'Let's discuss it with the waiter, I've brought a bottle and a jar with babyfood, but maybe they can make something for him too.. I read in a young mum's magazine that French people start with taking their children to a restaurant at very young age'.
The waiter arrived and took their orders after having made a suggestion for a healthy dinner for James.
Louisa and Martin were quietly waiting for their starters to come, alternately paying attention to the babbles their son addressed to them.
Then a young man and woman made their appearance at the entrance of the restaurant.
'God NO!' Martin sighed deeply and he looked as if he just had swallowed a huge spoon full of cod liver oil or other bitter liquid.
Louisa turned her head and just witnessed the waiter leading to a table a rather young woman, silvery blond, very long legs and a permanent smile painted on her face. Certainly heading fo Paris, Louisa thought. I wouldn't be surprised to see her in the next edition of Vogue. She was accompanied by a man The blond Barbie-like woman stood in front of the man that accompanied her, so Louisa hadn't seen him yet. They must have driven the fire red Ferrari that she just saw passing on the street. Given Martins deep sigh and grumpy moaning, it must be someone he knew.
The waiter, unaware of the reaction of his Brittish clients, lead the new customers to a table next to where Martin and Louisa were sitting.
Martin's face turned dark red now, he was most certainly not content with the turn of events.
'Do you know this woman, Martin?
'No!', he snarled, pointing discretely at the male company of the girl. Then Louisa finally saw the man and understood immediately why Martin was angry and upset.
'Well, well', an arrogant voice said to Martin. 'Dr. Ellingham... You're the last I would expect to cross the channel to pass a weekend on the continent and enjoy the French "culture"'.
While saying that, he pointed at the blond girl at his side. 'But as I may say, your catch isn't bad either, as to judge her from the back', he added. The guy certainly hadn't seen the highchair with James yet.
Martin was about to explode, but Louisa was ahead of him.. She turned around and had the extreme pleasure to say calmly but firmly,
'Dr. Pitts, as far as I remember I have already warned you several years ago never to bother Martin ever again! Now as it seams that you have left your memory back home in the UK, I repeat it to you once again: stay out of the way of me, my husband and my son. If you ever dare to address humiliating, malicious or simply stupid things on the conto of Martin Ellingham, I'll personally make sure that your carreer as a doctor is OVER'.
Louisa's eyes spat fire, her pony tail swung furiously back and forth when she spoke. Adrian Pitt's face turned pale and he didn't even dear to reply.
'Garcon', Louisa said to the waiter, 'Si vous souhaitez que la soirėe se passe bien, je vous conseille de donner une autre table, loin de chez nous à ces personnes. Croyez-moi, c'est mieux pour tout le monde'*.
The waiter, who had also witnessed the effect of Louisa's words to the newcomer, immediately redirected them to another table at the other side of the restaurant.
'Louisa, what did you just say to the waiter? And what warning were you talking about to that miserable Pitts creature?'
Martin nervously turned his glass of water between his hands, not knowing what to think of Louisa's behaviour.
'I just told the waiter that it would be better for everybody to give Pitts another table far away from ours. And Pitts... I had an exchange of this type with him the morning after the operation of Peter Cronk, while you were waiting for me in the taxi. At the time, I told the arogant b.. what could happen when a complete village like Portwenn would turn against him when they would discover he was the malicous idiot spreading the news of your blood thing and of bringing their Doc in disrepute. I don't think I was calm like today, though..'
Martin gulped and layed his hand over Louisa's.
'Thank you for always backing me up'. He lifted her hand and kissed the back of it softly.
The starters came and they both enjoyed it. Curious as the little boy was, James showed interest in their plates, making smacking noises. Martin gave him a tiny bit of soft scallop, which he very clearly liked a lot. Louisa also made him taste the soup, but he prefered the scallops and he begged for more.
When the waiter came to take away the empty plates of their starters, the restaurant door opened again and the group of ten entered. They installed themselves at the large table. The group consisted of three couples and four children aged between eight and twelve.
James smiled his widest smile, when he saw the children passing by. 'Oh, il est mgnon!', one of the women said 'E ise very cute', she added with a very heavy French accent. Martin and Louisa nodded, but didn't want to start a conversation, because they wished to enjoy the meal just the three of them.
The group settled at the large table, the adults grouped together at the far end, and the four children close to where Martin, Louisa and James were about to enjoy the main courses.
As often happens when larger groups gather around a table, the adults paid attention to each other, but left the children amuse themselves together. The youngest of the children, a little French beauty with black hair neatly cut in a perfact bobline just above her shoulders and wearing a beautiful dress, was somewhat listless and leaned with her head on the table, not participating in the joyful chitchat of the other children. When the menus were discussed, she moaned and said ' je n'ai pas faim'. 'Of course you are hungry, my dear' answered the mother who decided to order some pasta for the little girl, after which she returned to the conversation with her friends.
Martin and Louisa were finishing their main courses when the other table was served. The little girl found herself confronted at an enormous plate with pasta and cream. She suddenly turned white as a sheet.
Martin, observing as ever, ducked under the table, where he kept his medical bag that he brought with him wherever he went. He took out one of the paper bags he usually needed himself when he had panic attacks and walked over to the other table. Just in time, since the little girl threw up in the bag as soon as Martin held it in front of her. He discarded the bag.
It was only when the adults at the table saw this big stranger touching their girl's forehead that they became aware of the situation. Martin only touched the girls forehead to check her on fever, but the temperamentful father jumped up from his chair and ran towards Martin 'eh oh, pour qui tu te prends de toucher ma fille comme cela, espèce de c...'**
Martin, ignorant of what the fellow was saying, growled back in his usual direct way 'You bloody imbecile, your daughter is sick and you don't even take care of her. I'm a doctor, let me examine her, for god's sake!'
Louisa joined the two men who were both arguing in their own language. She raised her voice, just like she usually did when she had to cool down two fighting pupils.
'Calmez-vous monsieur, calm down Martin! Mon mari est médecin, monsieur et très qualifié, il prendra soin de votre fille***. Martin, what do you think is wrong with the little girl?
'I don't know yet, but with your help I might find out quite quickly. Louisa, ask them if something particular happened today, please'.
Louisa immediately asked the question to the father who in the mean time had come to his senses. The mother also came close to her sick girl.
'Nothing particular happened as it seems'.
Then one of the other boys of the group pulled Martin at the slip of his suit jacket.
'Monsieur'
Louisa immediately translated what the boy told Martin: 'Marine complained all afternoon about pain on one side of her stomac, but she didn't tell our parents, because she didn't want to spoil mummy's birthday ...'
Louisa couldn't refrain from saying 'what a sweet thought'.
Just then the girl bent double and screamed in pain 'aie, aie'.
'Call an ambulance, les urgences, NOW', Martin yelled to the waiter. And then
'PITTS where are you, idiot, there's an emergency here and I can use a hand'.
The little girl's pulse was racing, Martin mentally ruled out different diagnosis. It probably was an apendicitis and a bad one too.
Adrian Pitts came over reluctantly, because he just savoured his dinner and enjoyed the evening with the blonde girl. But he'd better not refuse an order of Dr. Ellingham.
'Andrew, I have ordered an ambulance and as a reward for spreading the news of my bloodphobia, spoiling my life in Portwenn, you are now the one that won a nice ride in the ambulance tonight. With any chance, you can do a procedure in a French theater and take care of an apendicitis that's about to burst..I suspect peritonitis if the girl isn't treated within half an hour'.
'It's Adrien, Chief and I'm on holiday sir and.. He stuttered'. But one look at both Martin and Louisa, made him hold his tongue and he decided to accept.
'So am I. You don't want a GP with bloodphobis do this, do you?', Martin growled.
Together the two doctors supervised the girl until the ambulance arrived, put in a line with fluids, both working together in doctor's mode, so very professionally and not showing their mutual disliking.
The ambulance came and the girl was carried away. Pitt's French apeared to be reasonably good and with the help of Louisa, he was able to explain the situation to the paramedics. Martin gave Pitts some other advice before the ambulance drove away. Marine's father approached Martin and gave him a huge hug.
' Merci, merci docteur, tank you, tank you'.
'Hmm', Martin said pushing the man away.
Everybody calmed down then and Martin and Louisa returned to their table where James had profited of the situation and smeared most of his food all over his face, in his hair and on his cloths.
Seeing this, Martin sank down on a chair and buried his face in his hands.
'Oh gawd..'.
Louisa laughed out loud and swung her arm around his shoulders.
'Oh Martin, I bet you'd prefer operating and get out he the poor girl's appendix over cleaning the mess your son made of himself, hmm?' Then she added 'Come on boys, let's get back to the B&B. We all need a bath and a bed...!'
To be continued.
* Waiter, if you wish the evening to succeed, i advice you to give another table,far away from our's, to these persons. Believe me, it'll be better for everybody.
** who do you think are that you can touch my daughter like that
***my husband is a doctor and a very good one too, he'll take care of your daughter
dear readers I didn't translate every French sentence, but the context will explain most of it , I hope. If not, please let me know In a review!