Chapter 20 – Sea of flowers
When Louisa and Morwenna pushed James' buggy towards the exit of the park, they passed a lovely terrace and decided to take a coffee break for themselves and a morning snack for James first.
'Coffee doesn't seem to be their best speciality here', Louisa stated after having taken a sip of her cup of the brown concoction that was served just seconds before.
'What do you expect with a sign saying "De koffie is klaar" – I just looked it up with the Translate App on my smartphone, that means the coffee is ready in Dutch.. If they do what it says, your coffee is maybe made this morning and simmering away on a stove or something?' Morwenna replied.
'Well anyway, it's warm and I'll survive. We will ask Edwin about it later. Let's go and hire those bikes, shall we?'
They went back to the car to stow away the buggy and to ask Edwin to help them negotiate with the bike renters.
Louisa knocked on the side window to draw the attention of Edwin who was quite absorbed by his study. He put down the book and stepped out of the car.
'It's better to make the request in Dutch, you can better explain to them what we need than we, I guess', Louisa explained.
'Of course Mrs. Ellingham, right away'.
In no time, they were served with two brand new bikes, with the saddles adjusted to their height, one of them equipped with a baby seat for James. On recommendation of both the bike-renter and Edwin, Louisa tried first to ride it without James.
'Try to take a turn, or try to circle around us, just to get the right feeling', the bike renter said. 'Be careful, these bikes don't have coaster brakes, only the brakes here at the handlebar.'
'Just imagine it with the weight of your son in it. Wait', Edwin said and he stuffed the baby bag in the chair. 'There. Now you have a better idea of what it is to ride with your son in front of you'.
'I know how to ride a bike', Louisa thought but nevertheless did what her was told. It was different indeed, but she soon got a hang of it. Morwenna handed over James to Edwin and also tried hers. Finally Louisa felt sure enough to try it with James. James was just getting fussy in the arms of the unexperienced baby minder Edwin appeared to be. Edwin quickly handed him back to Louisa, who installed him in the baby seat and buckled the straps. With the colourful helmet on his head, he looked just like the Dutch children they had seen in the rush-hour that morning. The baby bag was tucked in the special cycle bag attached at the rear of Morwenna's bike.
'Everybody ready? Let's hit the road then', Louisa joked.
'Don't forget to stay at the right side of the biking lanes, stay away from the left side!', Edwin yelled after them.
It was the perfect weather for a biking tour, sunny and not much wind, which was a rare phenomenon in this environment. James was squealing with joy and babbled happily, pointing at every sheep or horse he saw in the meadows.
'I wonder where the famous milk cows are?, Morwenna questioned.
'Probably in the cowsheds, producing milk, Louisa answered. I don't think this is the right region for that. You know, here most of the precious land is used for the cultivation of bulb flowers. I suppose the sheep and horses are more.., like pets, just for the fun of the owners.
They paddled along, enjoying their tour. They rode through flower fields of all colours, bright red, pink, purple, white…. There were flowers of all kinds. Mostly tulips, but also hyacinths and late daffodils.
'This is what I've seen from above, when I was in the plane, Morwenna said with enthusiasm.
'It's even more beautiful when you are in the middle of them, unbelievable!' She stopped right at the border of four fields in different colours, two at each side of the road.
'I want to take some pictures, it is splendid'. She parked the bike at the side of the road and positioned herself in such a way that she could make a photo from different angles to get the different colours in her photographs. She took the time to send some of them to Al. Then she put the settings of the camera in the panorama mode and made a set of photo's that would permit a 360 degrees view of the site afterwards.
'I am going to post this on f-book', she announced. Just before stepping on her bike again, she took another photo of Louisa, who was holding her bike firmly. She was busy amusing James by pointing at the different colours and repeating them to James. Louisa's ponytail was blowing in the wind, which gave just the right impression of the windy open field. Morwenna quickly sent this photo to Martin. To her big surprise, she received an immediate 'Beautiful, Morwenna, thank you' text message back.
They continued their ride and suddenly arrived at a place where people were picking flowers. They stopped and walked over to the person who seemed to be the person in charge.
'Goede morgen dames, willen jullie bloemen voor thuis?', the guy said, but obviously, Louisa and Morwenna didn't understand a single word of it and looked at him quizzically.
'Sorry, I took you for Dutch persons, but you must be tourists, I hope you do speak English or German, because if I were to speak French, I would be in trouble'.
'We are from the UK, actually, so English is perfect', Morwenna answered him.
'Right then, If you want the little one to have a sensation of being immerged by the flowers, this is your chance – Just take one of the baskets over there and help yourself.. I'll have to charge you for them at the end though, I have five mouths to feed at home'.
Well that's pretty straight forward, Martin would love it – no wonder he feels at home so much in this country', Louisa thought. Morwenna picked up a basket and a special knife to cut the flowers. Then they entered a bulb field with pink tulips, but James scowled and pointed at the yellow ones further away, so Louisa took him there. All types of tulips had different names.
'I wonder who Ruud Gullit might be or have been', she asked herself.
'I wouldn't be surprised if it were a football player, or an ice skater*', Morwenna replied. 'That's what the air hostess explained me, famous tulips have names of famous persons, names of members of the royal family, names of actors, sportsmen, anything'.
James got impatient, so Louisa hurried towards the yellow flowers. She put him down right in the middle of it. He rewarded her with a broad smile and burrowed his face in the flowers. The sight was priceless. This time, Louisa took plenty of pictures and even made a small movie with the camera. She also sent some of them to Martin. She too received a text message rather quickly after that: Adorable Louisa – I miss you two!
'Must be a coffee break then' she reasoned, knowing that her husband wouldn't let distract himself by a photo message, even when it came from his lovely wife.
With their help, they let James pick some flowers, and then decided he shouldn't damage more of the field and strolled through the field, occasionally picking up a few flowers of different colours. When arriving back at the entrance, they went to see the owner again to pay for the flowers.
'That'll be five Euro', he said.
'Are you sure? We picked so many flowers!'
'Well, in fact, the flowers have to be picked, that is necessary for the breeding. The bulbs only grow and multiply when the flowers are cut off. These flowers are fully blooming, so they cannot be sold by official distribution channels. That's why we offer you the possibility to pick them ans we sell them at a reasonable price'.
'And..', he added with a smile, 'I love it when parents show their children the interest of flowers – that's important for my future and for the future of my own children. The youngest must have about his age, ten months, I guess?'
'Yeah, nearly eleven months'.
They paid the flowers and left the flower grower behind on his fields. The bunch of tulips was carefully tucked away in the other half of the bike bag attached to Morwenna's bike. They had asked the flower grower to give them the directions to the dunes and the sea, so they changed directions now and headed straight west, towards the North Sea.
The ride through the large dunes was of another kind than riding through the flower fields, but at least as pleasant. The special bike lane wasn't topped with gravel, but with fine shell grit.
'Be careful Morwenna, I wouldn't think of falling here and grate our knees…'
The ride was quite comfortable and they saw lots of birds and rabbits running away in front of them, careful not to get caught by the wheels. James laughed out loud seeing the bunny tails zigzag over the path.
About half an hour later, they passed a sign 'Wassenaarse Slag', that was where they could access the beach, according to the flower grower. He indicated that there would be a nice restaurant to have their lunch. They parked their bikes at the restaurant ad made a reservation for half an hour later. Morwenna also organised that they could leave the baby bag and the flowers at the restaurant and then they went to beach for a stroll. James was excited, he wanted to be put down and to crawl himself over the sand. Louisa let him, he obviously had to get rid of a bit of energy before lunch.
They looked over the wide, sandy beach.
'Now that's quite something else than Portwenn!', Morwenna exclaimed.
'Yes, but this is what I have seen everywhere along the continental coast so far, in France, in Zeeland.. You can walk over the beach for miles and miles without any problems. It's not like home with rocks and bays alternating, just sand, sand, sand..'
'There's another one that's sand, sand, sand', Morwenna laughed pointing at James. He had benefitted from the occasion and thoroughly explored the sandy shore. At this very moment, he was crawling towards the sea.. Louisa went to pick him up just before he reached the surf. Like Martin had done in Zeeland, she just let him feel the freshness of the water. It was really cold, so James soon started to shiver and chatter his teeth.
'Let's get you inside and make a nice warm lunch for you, young man'
In the restaurant, it was nicely warm. The owner showed them to a nice corner with a good view over the sea and the beach. It was really calm, as it was a normal weekday, so most people were at work or at school.
Louisa went to the bathroom with James, to rinse off most of the sand and to dress him with clean and dry clothes.
In the meantime, Morwenna had asked the waiter to warm the baby food. Louisa came back at the very moment the waiter brought James' meal. It was best to feed him first, being outdoor all morning had made the little fellow quite hungry. After the meal, Louisa unbuttoned the flappy front part of the baby bag, which in that way could be used as a play mat for James. She gave him a few toys and a booklet.
It gave them the opportunity to have their lunch peacefully. They chose a home-made vegetable soup, followed by a steak with French fries and salad.
'Now we have the chance to eat some red meat, because Martin doesn't join us', Louisa stated. She always tried to be considerate with his weakness when they ate at a restaurant.
They enjoyed their meal, watching James amusing himself with the toys. About ten minutes later, Morwenna said
'It seems that we will be here for a while', she nodded at the play mat. James lay curled up on the play mat, holding his purple dinosaur firmly in his arms..
Louisa smiled and tucked her coat around him, to make him more comfortable and to keep him warm.
The two women finished their lovely meal, ordered a cup of tea and chatted happily about their visit this morning. Each of them flipped through the photos they took.
'You are a very good photographer, Morwenna, do you know that? Is it your hobby?'
'Well, no, it's the first time I use a camera, I never had enough money to buy one.. But I do love it, so maybe I will make it my hobby!'
'Ask Martin, or Al to help you, they both are precise and good photographers, as far as I can be the judge of it…'
Hearing the name of Al, Morwenna blushed and shyly turned away her eyes.
Louisa asked: 'You are you making good progress with Al, aren't you Morwenna?'
Morwenna looked back, somewhat shocked, was it that visible? She had always tried to be neutral and not giving Al special attention, when he came to the surgery. Yet even the doc seemed to understand that she had a crush on Al, no wonder Louisa had noticed it... She blushed even harder and stammered
'Uhm.. maybe, yes… He brought me to the airport and then… Seemed to understand that I was afraid of flying.. He took me for a walk and explained everything.. Made me comfortable… We went to a nice viewing point – look here's the photo we took..'
Morwenna showed the photo of the panoramic view and then couldn't avoid that Louisa also saw he photo Al took of both of them.
'Well, that looks to me as if everything will be OK! What a beautiful photo of the two of you.'
They both fell silent for a moment. Then Morwenna asked hesitantly,
'Louisa, you and the Doc, how did you know he was the right man for you? And you the right woman for him? I can see that he adores you.. And you love him also very much. Yesterday's scene, after our encounter with that Montgomery woman, proved it to me. You seemed to be able to wash away all his worries in a flash of a moment – that's real love, the way I see it..'
Louisa stayed speechless for a moment. She suddenly realized that Morwenna saw in her a mature woman, with a lot of experience. The girl was raised by her grandfather, so she never had a mother or a father to confide her fears and worries to. Maybe that was the reason the girl looked for comfort in her – and Martin's – surrounding. Louisa stood up and sat next to Morwenna, laying her arms around the fragile shoulders of the young girl.
'Well, Morwenna, that's a difficult question.. I suppose that you have understood that it all wasn't that easy for us right from the start.. As Martin's receptionist you are maybe the best witness of everything that happens in our household. The struggle we had to find a rhythm in our lives where we could both do what we loved most – Martin working as a doctor and me being the head mistress of the primary school – AND giving baby James a solid loving home and care… You were there when Mrs T. kidnapped our son. We were chalk and cheese, Jane Norton was right.. And then the wedding, the miserable honeymoon, followed by the struggle Martin has with his bloody phobia topped off by the accident with the car that resulted in the emergency operation my own husband carried out on me!'
'But you really love each other, right? You do not simply stay together because of James?'
'Oh no, James has had a catalysing effect on us, yes, but we are together, because we truly love each other. We cannot bear to be without each other. We both have learnt that now. As for your question.. I can only speak for myself and I very much doubt that Martin will speak about it with you, but I realized that I really loved him when I discovered that I constantly wanted to stand up for him, wanted to take his defence in any situation. It didn't matter how rude he might have been, I always found reasons to excuse his behaviour and to stop the rumours in the village. I personally felt the pain when someone past him in the village calling him a tosser. I love him for his qualities as a caregiver, his brilliant medical skills, his never ending honesty, the way he takes care of James, his cooking skills.. and of course his hmm other skills help as well… You know what I mean', she added with a blush and a smile.
'Hmm and did you constantly think about him?'
I still do, Louisa thought. 'Yes, that's a good sign of it too'. She recalled for herself the most extraordinary dreams she had about him at that time, but she kept them for herself.
'Morwenna, I don't think you have to worry about it. Like Al's father Bert always says: go with the flow – see how it develops. Al is a reliable person. Martin wouldn't have asked him to bring you to the airport if he wouldn't think of him that way'.
She thought about the day of the non-wedding where even her best friends expressed their doubts on the success of their wedding. Then she added
'I just give you one advice: follow your own heart and feelings and never base any of your decisions on what others think of it. And Al shouldn't either'.
'Did that happen to you two?'
'Well, the gossips and the well-meaning but unfounded remarks of some persons didn't really help us'.
'Was our conversation of any help?' Louisa asked after a few minutes.
At that moment, James decided his nap had been long enough, so he opened his eyes and stretched his arms out in the air. He wanted to be picked up and hugged. Morwenna sat nearest to him, so she lifted the little boy in her arms and kissed his rosy still sleepy cheeks.
'Thank you Louisa', was her simple answer.
To be continued.. Please keep reviewing.
*) Ruud Gullit was indeed a famous Dutch football player in the 80'ths.