The next morning, a Monday, I was in my meditation space preparing myself for my monthly lecture for vascular surgeons from all over London. Seats were awarded by lottery and I never knew who would turn up in the audience. I heard a slight sound and opened my eyes to see Louisa staring at me.

She pulled her robe closer and asked, "May I come in? I need to say something and I want to do it before you leave."

Today was going to be a busy day, and I needed to make an early start, but seeing the look on her face, I said, "Yes" and made space for her on my mat.

Pulling her to me, I asked, "Sleepyhead, why are you up so early?"

"I need to talk to you about something that happened last night. I didn't want to say anything last night to spoil your evening."

"Having you and James with me was perfection."

Looking at me, she took my hand. "I saw Dr. Kent. What was she doing there? Did you invite her?"

For a moment I thought I was in a parallel universe, so much so that my response came out in an unintended way.

"Are you feeling well? What would she be doing there?"

"I'm very well, thank you. And as for why she was there, I don't know. I hope you don't think I'm being paranoid," she said icily.

"At my Awards? Viola is on the committee, which is why she asked us if we wanted to invite special guests. If she had seen Dr. Kent on the list, I'm sure she would have said something to me."

Louisa remained silent. Feeling the weight of the morning already on her, she got up with a sigh.

"I know you have to leave early. We will discuss it later."

She kissed me on my cheek and left.

I held her hand to prevent her from leaving, but she shook it off.

"Just go. We will talk about it later. It can wait. "

Watching her retreating back, I wondered what I could do to reassure her, then went after her. She was back in bed, under the duvet, her back turned away from me. Looking at the clock, I knew I didn't have much time.

I leaned down and kissed her on her cheek. "We will get to the bottom of this, Louisa."

She said nothing, just pulled the duvet higher over herself.

I pulled the duvet down and turned her around to face me. "Please don't be angry with me. I will deal with this. Please do not worry. Promise?"

She shook her head unconvincingly. For the first that I could remember, I wished I could send somebody in my place to give the lecture. Years of discipline did not allow me to pursue this line of thought, but I looked longingly at Louisa in bed and wished I could stay to comfort her. She hid her worry well last night, I thought. Knowing her as well as I now did, I knew today would be a difficult day for her.

Louisa looked at Martin and smiled wanly. Would this woman ever go away? Hadn't she suffered enough at the hands of Edith ... the embarrassment at having to admit the meagre number of times Martin I had been intimate, the constant sniping about the size of my baby, then after Martin left, the intrusive questions about how I was going to manage. I knew Martin wasn't having an affair, but I didn't want this woman flitting in and out of our life.

Martin left home deeply troubled and on the way in, texted Mrs. Green to have her arrange an urgent meeting with Viola.

With this new wrinkle in his life, he walked determinedly through the staff entrance to the lecture hall to confer with his technical assistant on slides he had recently altered for today's lecture.

He had seen the crowd filing in and had wondered what was happening. A crowd of this size was odd.

When he walked out to the platform, the entire lecture hall, filled to overflowing, rose in a standing ovation.

Still bristling from his conversation with Louisa, he shouted above the din to his assistant, "What the hell is going on, Isaiah?"

Isaiah looked at him incredulously. "It's you! Your Genius Award."

Martin was not in the mood for ovations. "I can't be here all day. So let's get to it." His mind was already on what he would say to Viola to get Dr. Kent out of his life.

The cheering would not stop. There he stood looking bemused at all the attention, the spotlight outlining his tall frame clad in a crisp navy suit and the genuine puzzlement flitting across his face, with his team lined up behind him clapping along with the others. Viola touched him lightly.

"I got this Martin."

"Thank you, thank you. Thank you everybody. Now, if you will take your seats, Mr. Ellingham will say a few words, then get on with the lecture."

Martin stood transfixed. The hall went silent, yet everybody remained standing. They were waiting on the legend to address them, to sweep them up by association in his history-making Genius Award.

Viola turned to him, put her hand on his back and whispered, "You have to say something, Martin," then gave him a gentle nudge.

"Colleagues, thanks for your outpouring of goodwill. Thank you for supporting me through good times and not so pleasant times. I appreciate the honour of being conferred with the Genius Award. However, please understand that without your support," he paused and nodded at his team and members of the audience, "I would not have deserved this Award."

The hall broke out in wild applause, touched by his modesty. Everybody knew that Martin was a gifted surgeon and nothing they had personally done, could have influenced his prodigious medical skills in one way or the other. His contemporaries knew that well. They had watched him reach the pinnacle of his career at an early age, only to be felled by haemophobia, then slain that dragon and return to surgery to even greater fame and acclamation.

When Martin got back to his office, Mrs. Green motioned to his inner office. "Prof. is waiting on you."

"Martin, is something wrong?'" Viola asked seeing his face. He had discarded the mask he had worn all morning when he closed the door and saw her sitting before his desk leafing through a journal.

"God, yes. Louisa is distraught and I hated leaving her like that. We have to get this Dr. Kent matter resolved.

Viola's eyes narrowed. "What matter?"

"Louisa saw her last night. She thinks I had something to do with her being there."

"No, you didn't. She turned up, uninvited, with some of her colleagues. I asked her to leave the building which she did. I also threatened to report her to the Board for harassment. I reported her some time ago to her supervisor and as far as I know, she was issued a warning."

"I didn't see her. Something is not rational about her behaviour. This is so unlike her."

Thinking aloud he said. "I'm going to report it to the police. This is now harassment and stalking."

"No, Martin. I will handle this. This is not something that Genius Awardees get involved with. She is one of us and I'll see to it that she gets help. If it's a psychosis or personal issues, we will deal with it."

"Do what you need to do, then. I'll speak with her chief."

" No, Martin. Think of how it's going to look. The accusation about a child ..." Viola hastened to correct herself. 'Even though there was never any basis for it. But still ..."

"Tom is a friend. I need to speak with him. My only concern is Louisa. She doesn't deserve this."

"How is she doing."

"Not well. I spoke with her before I walked over and she sounded sad. Not much different from when I left her this morning."

After they had finished their discussion, Viola held his hand as she was about to leave.

"We'll work on it from our different strengths. You go home to your wife and give her all the comfort you can. And please, take a break yourself. I don't want to see you here for the rest of the week."

She left, then popped back in. "You may want to give her flowers."

"That won't help. She's scared."

Viola was firm. "It always helps."

Louisa had buried herself in work all day to keep her mind distracted. When Martin walked through the door carrying yellow roses, she hugged him, glad to feel his reassuring warmth.

"Yellow roses. This is so kind of you. Martin, I'm sorry I was cross with you this morning."

"No, no. I know it wasn't personal."

"How was your day?"

"Umph ... could be better. How was yours?"

"Good," she lied. "Please wash up and let's have dinner."

Martin knew he would have to resume their earlier conversation and waited until they had eaten their dinner in near silence, as they usually did. Dinner over, they tidied up the kitchen then went and sat in the lounge. He told her about the plan he and Viola had come up with. She said nothing, just looked at him anxiously. He knew of no other way to comfort her than to turn to something that had the power to draw them close.

"Will you dance with me?" he asked and helped her up.

She smiled and wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his chest.

"You don't have to say anymore. You're tired," she whispered.

"No, I want to do it now."

With his head resting gently on hers he asked, "Remember how we promised to be honest with each other even when we are afraid?"

"Yes."

"Tell me honestly, are you afraid? I told you, she's no threat, ever, to our marriage."

"I know that Martin. I know you love me. But I don't know if she may harm you or James. I just don't know."

"She poses no harm to me. Viola is going to ensure that she's forced to undergo a full workup, including neurological testing."

"And?"

"If there's a neurological issue, it may take longer than I had hoped to have the matter resolved."

Louisa stopped moving and looked up at Martin. " And what do I do in the meantime? What happens when I see her next?"

He drew her head back against his chest. "You're not in any physical danger. None of us are."

"You don't know that Martin. You don't know what is going on with her."

"No, but I'm going to see that she gets help."

"Then what?"

"Then we get on with our life as we have been doing."

Louisa pulled Martin's head down to hers. "Promise me that if you see me going over the top about this, you will stop me."

Remembering her amnesia and what had brought it on, Martin said, "You don't have to worry about that. I will watch over you, watch over our family, until this is all over."

Both trusted that the matter would go as planned and drew strength from each other.

As they swayed to Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight playing softly in the background, Martin knew he would do anything to protect his family from harm.

We go to a party and everyone turns to see
This beautiful lady that's walking around with me.
And then she asks me, "Do you feel all right?"
And I say, "Yes, I feel wonderful tonight."

I feel wonderful because I see
The love light in your eyes.
And the wonder of it all
Is that you just don't realize how much I love you.