Martin's call interrupted her thoughts. He was home. "Hurry home" he implored, "I need you." Promising to get her shopping done quickly, she got off the call.

Martin greeted her at the door with open arms into which she gratefully collapsed. He's in a great mood, she thought. I can use a bit of cheer after Milligan and remembering out big row.

After she had relaxed over a cup of tea which Martin had wisely made when he saw how frazzled she was, he announced, "Your bath awaits you, my lady."

Martin had taken to pampering her by setting a bath with her favourite lavender oil on weekends, a ritual they both enjoyed. When she was settled in the bath, Louisa pulled Martin down to a kneeling position and ran her hands teasingly against his chest.

"Why don't you join me? You had an early start to your day. A bath will be relaxing."

Just as he was unbuttoning his shirt, there was a loud banging on the front door. Louisa jumped and made a splash. It was unusual for anybody to visit unannounced, let alone bang on the door.

"Hold that thought. Let me see who that could be." Martin hastily rebuttoned his shirt and ran downstairs.

When he didn't return immediately, Louisa listened, but didn't hear any voices. After a while she wondered if the banging was by an intruder who had tied up Martin and was quietly ransacking downstairs. That made her smile a little. Not in this neighbourhood. Still, you never know. She knew for sure it wasn't James, he would have called out to her.

Getting worried, she climbed out of the bath, put on her robe, pulled her hair up into a knot and went to see what was happening. She walked barefooted down the stairs, and suddenly stopped dead in her tracks.

Martin was standing by the door, talking softly with barely contained anger to a strange woman – petite, youngish and impeccably dressed in a navy suit that complemented her short, stylish blonde hair. When she looked closer, she saw that his face was twisted in rage. She had forgotten he could look like that. The woman, clearly agitated, seemed near to tears, and was trying to hold his hand and he was using his other hand to keep her at arm's length. Neither had heard her coming down the stairs.

A sound escaped her and both looked up. Having given birth alone in a cold hospital room with only Joan waiting outside, endured the taunts of the villagers, lived through Nathan's illness and had him die in her arms, she was a woman without fear. In full warrior mode, she walked towards Martin and asked, "What is happening? Who is this woman?"

Before he could answer, the woman let out a scream followed by a torrent of words.

"Who is she? What is she doing here, in her bathrobe in the middle of the day? Another of your lovers? What can she give you that I couldn't?"

"Will you shut up," he shouted.

She would not stop. "For a man of your stature, you have hit rock bottom. You could have any woman you wanted, and you choose this ... this I don't know what. She's old. What could you possibly see in her?"

Louisa was livid. Memories of Edith Montgomery and the indignities she had suffered at her hand, flashed before her and gave further fuel to her anger. She pulled her robe tighter around her and turned away swiftly from Martin to face the woman.

"Who the hell are you calling she?" Louisa demanded.

Martin was just as swift. He drew her away and closer to him, held her head against his chest as if to shield her.

Rubbing her trembling body, he said, "Louisa, she's a colleague, the Dr. Kent I told you about. She has come here with a preposterous story and I'm trying to get her to leave."

Turning to the woman, he asked, "How dare you insult my fiancée? Why the bloody hell are you stalking me? You didn't get me at the office, now you have the nerve to invade my home with your wild allegations."

"I will not leave until you hear me out," Dr. Kent shouted.

Suddenly, Louisa felt as if the house was tumbling in on her and there was nowhere to hide.

Martin saw the look on her face and pulled her even closer. With a surge of strength born of despair mixed with rage, she wriggled out of his arms, again tightened the belt around and faced the woman.

Sounding stronger than she felt, she told her, "This is our home. Why are you here? It would have been polite if you had called before instead of turning up unannounced and interrupting our evening."

"You must be the woman from Cornwall, you sound like …" Dr. Kent began.

"Like what? A country pumpkin? The people of Cornwall could teach you a thing or two about manners. Yours are non-existent and you call yourself a doctor. Now, if you would just leave," she shouted.

Martin tightened his grip on her. "Louisa, I can handle this. This is not the Dr. Kent I know, please give us a minute." His voice was frightening calm but she chose not to heed it. She would not be silenced, not after seeing how this had affected Martin. The next words out of Dr. Kent made her double over in physical pain.

"I'm sorry for barging in, but it's time Martin Ellingham took responsibility for our child."

Louisa felt a familiar light-headedness and nausea sweep over her and reached for Martin's hand.

He grabbed her around the waist before she fell and sat her down in a chair in the lounge.

"Please don't faint on me. Louisa ..."

She opened her eyes and gave him a weak smile.

"It's okay, I'm fine. Just felt a little groggy there."

"Let me get you some water," he said. In record time he was back and holding the glass to her lips.

"Drink up, you'll feel better."

The woman watched them with a smirk. Looking up at her, Martin said with resignation. "You had better explain yourself. This is the first time I'm hearing about a child, Margaret. What madness is this about? "

According to Dr. Kent, she had last seen Martin at a conference ten years ago. She was recovering from the death of her mother and he was kind enough to give her a shoulder to cry on. He had walked her to her room when the conference was over, accepted her invitation to come in for a chat, they had made love and six weeks after she realized she was pregnant.

"Why did you wait so long to tell him?" Louisa snapped.

"I didn't want to. Our relationship had been long over, and I didn't need to." she replied.

Dr. Kent said she had found love after the encounter. Her husband was willing to accept the child as his own (she hadn't told him who the father was). Two years ago their marriage had ended in a bitter divorce which had ruined her financially. She could no longer keep their son in the style to which he had grown accustomed and all she wanted was a monthly allowance for their child.

Martin's shot her a look that could kill. "Do you realize this is a serious allegation with legal implications if, as I believe, it's all lies, a figment of your twisted mind?"

Louisa didn't miss a beat although her belly still felt as if somebody had punched her and her head was throbbing. She wanted the nightmare to be over.

"Bring the child to see us. Martin will take a paternity test and we'll take it from there. Do not ever, EVER, set foot at our door again unless an arrangement is in place. " With that she gently removed Martin's hands from hers, leaned on him to get up, and held his arm as they both showed Dr. Kent out.

When they were settled in the sofa, she said to Martin, "Please let's not talk about it now. Just hold me."

Everything had happened so fast that they both welcomed the silence. In their own little world, fears ran rampant.

It pained Martin to see the havoc Margaret had caused. Something about her was strange, almost as if she was having a psychotic episode: the banging on the door, the screaming, the rush of words, the bizarre story, even the home invasion. She has never been inside my home before. Why now? Sod her. Right now, I have to help Louisa. What If she thinks I'm hiding something from her, that this entire story is true ... Our relationship cannot survive this. Two condom failures? Impossible.

Louisa felt the familiar fear of abandonment creeping over her. I know it's irrational but it's clear the kind of women he likes - doctors, his professional equal. This one is young, arm candy, the mother of Martin's young son. Will I have a place in his life after this? The nerve of her calling me old.

Suddenly, Louisa got up and raced to the powder room with Martin close behind her. In a few seconds, all she had eaten that morning and the day before were staring up at her from the toilet bowl. Martin helped her to clean up and led her back to the lounge. He rubbed her back to comfort her, while she sobbed quietly into his chest.

"Louisa, Louisa." I knew it was Martin calling. I could hear myself moaning and knew I was crying because my face felt wet and the hand that was caressing my face was wet.

"Louisa, please let me explain. I swear none of this is true."

I opened my eyes and looked at my dear sweet Martin who I knew loved me. I could see the pain in his eyes. He must have been as traumatized as I was. Talking now was neither fair to him nor to me, we needed time to recover.

I caressed his hand that was on my face and whispered, "I don't need an explanation. Whatever happened between you and that woman was a long time ago. Please just hold me … We can talk about it tomorrow."

After a while, I had this crazy idea that I wanted to dance. When Martin and I were dancing, it was just us, nobody intruding in our world. I nudged Martin, "Let's dance."

He helped me to my feet and found us some music. At first we felt stiff in each others arms. Gradually we relaxed and just swayed to the beat. I felt comforted in his arms. Then I had another crazy idea. No, a lovely idea. I wanted to be as close as possible as we could get to wipe out the memory of what had taken place. I untied my hair and let it fall around my shoulder, wiggled out of my robe, watched it fall to the ground and slid back into Martin's arms. I could see Martin looking at me warily.

"Louisa, are you sure this is the right time?" He hugged me closer, "It's going to be alright. I can explain everything."

There he was banging on again about an explanation which I did not need. I wrapped my arms around him, laid my head on his shoulder and continued swaying to the music. Long after the music stopped, we stood holding each other until I pulled Martin's head down and whispered, "I need you." That was it, the closest we could ever get physically as a couple.

I watched Louisa falling asleep, curled up against me with my arms across her. I knew she was finally asleep when her grip on my hand slackened. The evening was still young, yet I had no wish to do anything but be in bed with her. I got up, locked up downstairs, turned off the lights and our phones and came back to bed. Louisa's face was so peaceful, it was hard to imagine the darkness which had crept into our lives this afternoon.

"Louisa, I will make you happy," I promised her.

Martin fell into a troubled sleep. When he woke up it was still early evening. He went to his study so as not to disturb Louisa and made two calls.

When Victoria answered, her first words were, "Is something wrong? You sound terrible."

"Yes, there is," then told her what has happened.

Victoria told him to get some rest and they would talk in the morning. Her last words were, "Louisa loves you. You both will get through this."

"Fine," was all he could say. His next call was to Chris.

If Chris was surprised to hear from Martin, he hid it well. He answered with his usual cheer. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your call?"

Again he recounted what had happened and waited for a response from Chris.

"I don't know anything about Dr. Kent, save for what Viola told me. From what she said, of late, Dr. Kent has been talking about the relationship you once had, kind of bragging. Viola filed a complaint with her supervisor. As you know the top brass frowns on this sort of thing. Confidentiality, circumspection, and all that. There is also some rumour that her skills have fallen off because of marital problems. I wouldn't worry about the son bit. Can't imagine Viola not knowing and not telling me. Of course in light of what has happened, I'll make some inquiries. Get some rest Martin."

The next morning, Louisa was the first to get up. By 7 am, she had showered, dressed and made our coffee. When she came back upstairs with the two cups, I was just stirring. She woke me with a kiss and put her finger against her lips, cautioning me to be silent when I tried to ask how she slept. We sipped our coffee in silence.

Finally, I could not stand it anymore. "I'm going to take a shower and then we must talk."

Louisa protested, but I insisted, "No, we must deal with it."

Then she ruffled my hair as if I was a little boy she was trying to comfort and said the unexpected. "Martin Ellingham I love you. Nothing is going to change that."

Inwardly, I sang for joy. I can't remember anyone ruffling my hair as a boy. I know she must have done that many time to James and I was glad. I could see him now with his long, unruly blonde hair, earnest face looking up at his mum as she played with his hair. I smiled back at her, overjoyed to hear that she still loved me.

Sitting together in bed with my arms around her, I explained that Dr. Kent and I had been intimate as she described it. It had been a low point in my life and I welcomed her company. She swore she was taking contraceptives, but I played it safe by using the condom she offered me after I insisted. It was a good quality. I left right after, called her the next morning to thank her for being with me.

"Yesterday, I swear, was the first time I was seeing her since that night."

Louisa wanted to believe Martin and deep down, she did. Even as far back as Portwenn she knew that he was a lousy liar and that he could be disastrously truthful. She heard him out not saying a word, then she dropped a bomb.

"I'm going to Portwenn for a few days to clear my head. By then, hopefully, the woman will have arranged a date for the child or whomever else she can concoct, to meet us. I will be here."

"What!" I stuttered.