Chapter 6: Marinara and Gossip

Wednesday Midday

Pauline flipped through the latest issue of Practice Nurse. She used to eagerly look forward to each new monthly issue, but now she couldn't concentrate on anything in the magazine. Her thoughts were occupied by a certain lanky, blue-eyed plumber.

She was reconsidering his offer to move in with him. He really was so sweet in his fumbling attempts to woo her, to persuade her not to leave Portwenn. He had actually managed to boil up some pasta, heat up some marinara sauce from a jar, and set up a halfway decent table, with candles and wine and all, at the ramshackle house he shared with his dad.

As she remarked at the time, how much romance could one girl take?

Then he sprang the little black box on her, the kind of box that all too often held an engagement ring, and her heart had skipped a beat - from fear more than anything else. The thought of getting married, getting pregnant, getting fat, and getting old, in that order, and above all the thought of never leaving Portwenn, had been terrifying.

Still, the key was a sweet gesture and she had been willing to keep the romantic evening alive, suggesting they go out to watch the sunset and the stars together. However, discovering that he had deliberately sabotaged her plan to go to university by breaking his promise to post the application she had worked so hard on was unforgivable.

Her mind drifted back to That Day, a little over a week ago.

As she walked up Roscarrock Hill to work, thinking she never wanted to see Al again, there he was on the stone terrace, waiting there for her with a bouquet of flowers.

"Morning," he said. So casual – as if nothing had happened! – she thought.

"I have nothing to say to you," she retorted.

"Well, maybe I've got something to say to you, eh? I'm really sorry about the application. I passed the post box, I honestly, I just…" He was trying to get his pathetic explanation out quickly as she slammed the door on him and he finished with a yelp "Agh!"

She opened the door a crack. "Got your fingers, didn't I."

"Yeah, maybe I should come and see the Doc." It felt so good to slam the door on him she did it again.

Surgery wasn't open to patients that morning and she was too agitated to sit and do paperwork, so she began to tell the Doc everything between her and Al, dogging his footsteps as he went about tidying his office.

"So last night he only goes and asks me to move in with me…" she was saying.

"What?" The Doc was obviously not paying attention. He really was a terrible listener, she thought.

"Al! He thought he could blindside me with marinara, didn't he. And he went right past the post box." Pauline reconsidered the Doc's poor listening skills. He did seem very nervous today, not like himself at all. "Sorry, sorry," she said. "I know you've got your review panel."

"Yes, of course, I know. I'm on my way there now."

"It's not like he could miss a post box, is it. It's big and red," she went on.

"Pauline, I'll be back in an hour." He headed out the front door.

"Yes, sorry, yes. Good luck."

She still couldn't settle down so she went into the kitchen and made herself a cuppa. Then out to reception where she straightened up and did some dusting, something she normally insisted was not in her job description, but she needed to keep busy. She was spraying a bit of air freshener when the Doc burst back in the front door.

"How'd it go?" He stalked into his office without a word and slammed the door. "Went well, then," she murmured to herself.

A moment later, Miss Glasson came through the door, without a word. She knocked on his office and went in.

Pauline put down the air freshener and put her ear to the door to hear their muffled conversation.

"You, you… you do realize how serious this is."

"Yes, I do."

"Martin, they want to get rid of you. Don't you even care about that? Look I know that you've never really fitted in around here and I know that you've never really tried and you're not interested in doing so, and I've always tried to understand that about you, because… because... well that's just you, that's what you're like. But I don't even think this is about that. I think that you deliberately wanted that review to go wrong, and I think that you want them to replace you and to send away from here. Well, Martin, you know, for what it's worth… I would like you to stay. So there."

There was a pause.

Pauline wasn't proud of the fact that she was eavesdropping, or that it wasn't the first time she had done so. If she was being honest with herself, she would admit that gossip was a kind of currency in the little village. If you had something juicy to share – like, say, what was going on between a certain head teacher and a certain cantankerous doctor – it got you attention from people who otherwise ignored you as part of the all-too-familiar landscape. And then people shared whatever they had with you, so you knew what was what in the tiny community. That's just how things were – everyone knew that.

But Pauline reasoned that Dr. Ellingham was such an odd duck it was often impossible to tell what going on with him without a little listening in now and again. If he was leaving Portwenn she could well be out of a job and she wanted to know about it.

She held her breath to hear his reply.

"Louisa… "

That's when Jonathan barged in…

"Pauline!" Dr. Ellingham barked from his office. "Call the Wenns. Tell them I have the fax with the lab results and they should come in as soon as possible to discuss them."

To be continued…