A Jane Fairfax and a Frank Churchill. And Robert and Edward Ferrars. I am Austen-confused.:-)
"Doctor Turner! Doctor Turner!"
Patrick turned around and saw Enid Musgrove shouting at him on a Poplar Street. He was coming from the London and was going to visit the Applebee Thorntons.
Mrs. Musgrove nearly ran to him. She seemed agitated.
"What's the matter?"
"Trixie's labour has started."
"All right, I will come at once. Is Miss Mannion already there?"
Enid Musgrove was out of breath. "No, that's the trouble. She has gone to visit Mrs. Smith at Woodford Green. She lives a good 15 miles from here. Would you be so kind and take your car and fetch her? Mrs. Smith does not have a telephone at her cottage."
"Yes. Yes, I could do that. But can you manage with Mrs. Tom? You know she has asked me to be there. With Miss Mannion."
"I think I can take care of her. Please go. Just go. Woodford Green, Agnes Street 15. You know the village?"
"Yes, I know the village." Patrick ran back to his apartment and hopped into his car. It was new and he had never driven it at the highest speed. The fog made it difficult to keep in the road. Finally he reached his destination. He knocked the door of Mrs. Smith's cottage. The maid told him that Mrs. Smith and Miss Mannion had gone for a walk.
He dashed to the direction she had given him. There, in the end of a long village lane, he could see two small figures.
"Shelagh!" he shouted. Shelagh turned around and was startled when she saw him.
In the fog, she looked like someone from another world. Her hair had turned curly in the damp weather and she was touching some wayward locks of her hair, trying to sweep them back. She lowered her gaze as in confusion.
He remembered that the only other time he had used her first name was their night at the lab. He corrected himself. "I mean, Miss Mannion!"
"Yes, Doctor Turner?"
"Miss Mannion, Trixie and Tom have sent for you. Trixie's labour has started."
"All right. I will come." She kissed Mrs. Smith a goodbye and ran with him to the car.
Did he notice a shade of blush on her cheeks? That must be from the running. Or nervousness about Trixie. That must be it.
They started their journey back to Poplar.
"What do you know of her situation?" Miss Mannion asked.
"Early first stage labour. She has been given chloral hydrate."
"Good." Suddenly she flashed a smile at him. "I think we are going to be all right," she said.
He felt feeble.
A beautiful baby boy had been born to the world. Trixie was like her old self again when she commented on him: "I'm glad he has his father's eyes. He will be a lady killer in 15 years of time."
Everybody burst out laughing. Tom was embarrassed. "Trixie. What a thing to say...of a son of a clergyman. Our boy will be my altar boy by the age of nine. "
"Now, my dear Reverend, that might be a possibility. He will charm the parish grandmothers out of their ...church hats. By the way, where did Shelagh and Patrick go?"
"They went for a cigarette." Tom had a knowing look.
"Really? Sometimes a cigarette is just a cigarette."
"I think this might be a very special cigarette..."
"I hope you're right, Tom. I don't want her to be hurt...again."
Outside, the Doctor and the Nurse were ignorant of this match-making behind their backs. Both felt a little bit vulnerable. A birth is such an intimate thing to attend. They hadn't been through a birth together since the Carter twins.
Patrick lit her cigarette a little uncertainly.
"Thank you, Doctor. For Trixie."
"I should be thanking you. I wasn't needed, as it should be. Just the way I like it." He paused a little. "You really made Mrs. Musgrove feel comfortable. That's a mark of a good nurse."
"I am not fishing for a compliment. I never was. "
"No. You never were. But people change."
"I am not that much changed."
One could hear the hum of the ships at the port and the traffic on a nearby highway.
"It is a period, indeed. Eight years." He inhaled fast.
Shelagh felt a spell of sweetness flow through her.
The baby boy was a week old. There was to be a night at the pub to wet the baby's head. Tom had mischievously called that event a Thanksgiving on the Eve of St. Martin's Feast, "since it really is the 10th November on Saturday." Tom had invited his father, James Applebee Thornton, Patrick and Timothy Turner there.
On that day, though, Fred and Shelagh met outside the Nonnatus Clinic an anxious Doctor Applebee Thornton. He was puffing and panting.
"Oh, Mr. Musgrove and Miss Mannion. Good to see you. I just have heard some...odd news. I hope you will not be too disturbed by it."
"No, unless it disturbs our night at the pub," Fred laughed. "Does it?"
"I am afraid it does. Doctor Turner, I mean Timothy, has just gone to see Vicar Musgrove."
"What is it?"
"Oh dear. In one way, it is the best of news. It is a wedding."
"Oh. Who is getting married?"
"It seems that there will be three Doctor Turners here soon. You see, Patsy, Doctor Mount...will soon be a Mrs. Turner."
Shelagh felt a sword at her heart.
"Oh, she is to wed Patrick?" Fred asked.
"No, no. That would be the news Jane and I have sort of been waiting for. But this is a little surprising. She is engaged to...Timothy."
Then Doctor Applebee continued his story more easily. How Patsy and Timothy had met in Australia before she even came to London. How they had fallen in love. How Timothy had felt that their engagement must come as a shock to the families of Musgrove and Franklin, because so little time had passed since the death of Cynthia. With Trixie pregnant and everything, they had decided to keep their relationship secret, until the baby was born.
"Now there is this healthy baby boy and everybody is happy and Timothy felt that they don't want to wait anymore..."
Doctor Applebee might have explained the meaning of life and Shelagh would still have heard nothing. His words were only a buzz in her ear, her mind was in confusion.
Fred seemed to be asking if the Applebee Thorntons were happy with this engagement.
"Oh yes, perfectly happy, we like Patsy. Patrick is happy for his brother, too. All we wonder is how you are going to take it. Especially Tom and Trixie."
"Well, it certainly is a surprise. But it is not the end of the world." Fred promised to smooth the way at the both households of Musgroves.
Doctor Applebee was relieved. There was still one worry left, he acknowledged. "Patrick, poor man. He will have to start to seek new female companionship. Again."