Chapter 16 – The Doctor

I kicked off my shoes and collapsed on the bed, feeling sand migrate from the seat of my dress to the coverlet. I sighed, just thinking about what might have happened this afternoon.

Poor mad Mr. Strain! I knew he was acting odd - quite odd. When Martin explained the genetic defect that the man had which caused his mania, it became clearer. So the feeling I got from him was just that a feeling that he was a bit off. Poor bugger. A medical condition after all. My medical condition thumped again, on the left side, right where I'd been kicked that afternoon. I patted my preggers tummy. "It's alright little guy. We're fine now." Thanks to your daddy. He'd saved the day, literally.

I wiggled around and put a pillow under my head. I was exhausted. The trip to Truro with Joan was so nice compared to a long bus ride. It gave us a chance to catch up on things. Joan was so excited about the baby but I didn't actually know how she might treat me at first. But the no nonsense lady that she was welcomed me warmly, almost gushingly right in the chemist's too, as Sally Tishell was giving me very cold looks and making snarky comments about me, Martin, and the baby… and about marriage.

Sally you just don't understand, do you? I know that you've carried a torch for Martin for a very long time, but you are married to Clive. Although it was very obvious that the one you wanted to be with was not your husband.

Thankfully Joan saved me from further embarrassment, or harassment, as her sunny words heaped praise and welcome on me under the glowering eyes of Mrs. Tishell. Joan offered me a place to stay at her farm, but it's so far from the school and without a car, I'd have to take a taxi. Joan even offered to drive me back and forth. That much help I was not able to accept.

I added Joan Norton to my short list of good friends who were so glad to see me. In Joan's case her attention was almost overwhelming. She was practically breathless with anticipation of the baby coming in three months, but it was so fun to be able to talk girl-talk with her to Truro and back. She tried to fill me in on the doings of the village, and I noticed that she tried very hard not to bring her nephew into the mix. Like it or not, Martin Ellingham did come up.

"So has that nephew of mine talked to you, Louisa?"

"Yes."

"I see."

We'd kept the conversation light on the way to hospital. But when Joan encountered Doctor Edith Montgomery in the hall, the air turned frosty.

Doctor Montgomery had already put me off, along with the attitude of the midwife who interviewed me.

"Will the father be coming to these appointments with you?" the slender nurse in the blue smock asked. Her nameplate read Moira.

"No."

"I see," she replied.

The way that she said it put me off. "And what does that mean exactly? I see?" I rubbed my side where my passenger was kicking.

A voice behind me that I recognized butted in. "It's part of our research project on geriatric parents."

The woman turned to face me and I recognized her. It was that Edith from the other night at Martin's cottage! She was still green-eyed, ginger-haired, petite and thin - too thin to my eyes.

"No, the father won't be cooperating." The woman went on and smiling a treacle-tinged smile left the room.

The exam seemed to go well and I felt better dealing with nurse Moira, but when Edith approached me in the hall, my radar switched on again. Edith explained to me how she was connected to the hospital and the OB department, but when she started to ask prying personal questions, that put me right off. Such as why I was here in Martin's village and I didn't want to go it alone? She even used the words cold feet.

I told her flat out, "I don't see that it is any concern of yours!" Whether I had this baby on my own or not should be no worry of this medico. And Portwenn is my village which Edith seemed to find hard to fathom.

"Well you can see how I got hold of the wrong end of the stick?" she said to my retreating back.

I whirled on her. "No, not really! Was it because I have a country accent?" This woman was doing a very good job getting under my skin. If I had to deal with her on every hospital visit I'd just as soon go back to Martin bloody Ellingham. My pulse was pounding now and things may have gone right downhill between us just then, but Edith saw Joan waiting for me and gave her a big hello.

"Oh my god! Auntie Jill?" Edith called out and the look that Joan gave her would have cut thru armor-plated steel.

Joan practically dragged me from the hospital and I knew there was no love lost between the two of them. Martin had known Edith during medical school I was told.

I nibbled on a jelly baby and asked prying questions of my own. "Like a first love?"

"Martin wanted to marry her," Joan answered with no enthusiasm.

But she'd gone abroad after and been gone all this time I reflected. Interesting.

I thought a lot about the players in this little drama. Me, the plucky Portwenn teacher and oh-so pregnant by Martin Ellingham, who is our GP who now wanted nothing to do with me, and now this Doctor Montgomery on the scene as well. I'd no time at all to even think about all this while Mr. Strain held us hostage on the beach, but now back in my nice cozy, snug, rented, and lonely room at the pub, it started to sink in.

Edith was there when I went to see Martin. And she just so happened to show up outside the school today and interrupted Martin and me as we talked. When the baby moved, I felt I should take his hand and put it on my belly. But the orange doctor drove up right then.

There was nothing I could do at that moment except follow the students inside, help them get off home and heave a huge sigh of relief. But before I went to my classroom, I stood in the doorway looking at Martin as he spoke to Edith, as he probably surveyed her trim body and v-neckline in that polka dotted dress. I looked down at my swollen chest and bulging belly. No, Louisa, polka dots would not be a good fashion choice for you, for a while.

So Edith had witnessed my whole act of 'Hello Martin' and 'Yes this baby is ours Martin'. I just wanted to die then and now. If only she'd not been there! I had rehearsed what I would say to him when I arrived. My fondest hope was sort of like the dream the other night. That he'd let me stay…

I levered myself off the bed, took a wee, washed up and went down to tea chewing my lip all the while.