Chapter 2
"Thank you, Mrs. Ford, I'll make sure to watch out for those," The husband says to her as she leaves the bedside of a young new mother.
Rilla nods her head. "Remember take a break, step away it won't hurt the baby to cry for a minute while you take a breath."
"We will," They answer back.
Rilla nods her head goodbye before going through the maternity ward. Heels clicking on the tile floor.
"Dr. Ford, if you can, can you check on Mrs. Taibot?" Someone asks of her. "The little one didn't make it through the night and well…" the young nurse says frowning. Rilla nods her head. This sort of job wasn't always fun that was for sure.
"According to your chart, you'll make a full recovery and I am sure you and your husband will have another and you'll forget all about this." Rilla hears some medical students say. God these medical students drove her insane. Vain young men usually think they know everything even when it came to obstetrics and babies.
The look on the woman's face must shock him as she burst into tears. He just awkwardly pats her shoulder and leaves the room.
"Mr. Cauldwell, are you married or engaged?" Rilla finds herself hurrying after him.
"No? Ms…?" he says shaking his head. "I'm still in medical school after all."
"Dr. Ford and I am married and have children and yet still managed to become a doctor," Rilla raises an eyebrow. Granted she barely got paid for this work, but that didn't matter to her. "Though I can assume that you don't have children?"
"Well, I'm not married?" He says rather cockily.
"Which we all know means nothing in terms of having children," Rilla rolls her eyes. "If you were married and some just told you to 'Get over it' 'Replace your dead child with another,' how would that make you feel?"
"I would think I would enjoy the truth."
"The truth? The truth is you don't know what it is like to lose a child and if you had any empathy or recollection of what it is like to lose a child you would never suggest to get over it." Rilla tells him through tense words.
"Have you lost children?" He asks venomously back as he knew better than a woman.
"I have, four times over at various stages of lives. I cared for a baby during the war for four years and was expected to just hand him over to his father and new wife as if nothing mattered. I have had miscarriages, once when I didn't even know that I was expecting and it still broke my heart into pieces. Another was a little later, I only just clued in and wasn't sure what to think or do and it still gutted me…." Rilla looks at him sternly.
"And the last?" He asks Stoney.
"Well, that is when I woke up after an emergency cesarian to find out one of my twins didn't make it. Do you know what it's like to mourn a child when you have one absolutely dependent on you? Did you know that the hospitals don't allow you to hold your stillborns? That they are just taken away as if nothing happened? I cannot just go and have another child to replace her with, having another child can send me to my demise. My husband had to make decisions for me, without my input because I had three other children who needed me at home. Everyone who has never experienced such a loss, thinks that 'oh have another' is something helpful to us grieving mothers but it isn't. It is cruel and uncaring, to think we can just cast off our emotions, and memories of feeling the child move within our bodies. The dreams of who they might be, but we can't."
"Then what I am to say?" He rolls his eyes slightly.
"My condolences, I'm sorry for your loss. I know my words mean nothing, but I am sorry that we couldn't do more. I don't know! Anything is better than you'll get over it!" Rilla tells him. "If I ever hear you say that to any patient who will not walk out of this hospital with a baby to go home with…I will have you scrubbing bedpans." She warns him. Not that she has such authority but the head matron likes her well enough.
Rilla sighs when she gets home, she kicks off her sensible shoes and sits down on the sofa. Clara was already running for her toy box.
"Rough day Mrs?" Mrs. Clark asks as she placed her notepads on the tableau that held household things.
"Isn't it always,?" Rilla sighs. "I thought it was your afternoon off, yet you're making grocery lists?" She says seeing the notepads.
"I had tea with my friend and came home," Mrs. Clarke tells her waving her off. "Just was going through the shopping list."
Rilla nods her head, hearing a crash.
"Clara?" She calls out sighing. "I'll go check on her, enjoy your day really," she tells her housekeeper.
She settles Clara, getting her into play clothes as Jimmy comes downstairs, pulling on his suspenders.
"Come on munchkin, why don't we play outside?" Jimmy asks, seeing his mother stifle a yawn.
Rilla mouths 'thank you,' and heads into her bedroom pulling off her blouse and skirt she falls onto the bed in her slip and undergarments.
She wakes up to Ken kissing her forehead.
"How was the office?" She asks yawning as she sits up in their bed.
"It was good, how was the hospital?" He asks unbuttoning his dress shirt meaning to put on something more comfortable for dinner.
"All right, I got to tell off some Resident today," Rilla says sitting up and stretching out in the bed.
"Telling off a resident, good thing you're in the woman's hospital," Ken teases her.
"Well, they won't fire me, they won't find another person like more and if they did they most likely would have to pay him more." Rilla reminds him with a sigh. The reality is that she was technically a volunteer, but the one matron seemed to like her. Usually, when the husbands were settling out bills she made sure to add in a line for Rilla, it wasn't much but it added into something at the end of the month. "How was work?"
"Well, I got the layout narrowed down, I might borrow Roe for some photos tomorrow, the ones we have aren't working right, and she like modelling for the paper," Ken tells her.
"Yes, because that is all she needs is a pretty dress that you'll let her keep afterwards," Rilla teased him, pulling him closer to her. Eying the closed door, and grinned at him.
"It's almost dinner and the kids will be home soon," he gives her a look.
"That has never stopped you before," Rilla smirks, moving her leg out of the blanket and trailing her foot down the side of his thigh. He catches it, running his hand over the silk stocking, up to the bare of her thigh and her garter elastics.
Ken looks at her, only stepping over to lock the actual door before unbuttoning his trousers. He crawls practically on top of her, kissing her soundly wasting no time on anything. Ignoring the laugh she makes as he does.
The bed squeaks under them, something they long learned to just ignore or go with. They know each other well, after so many years, much like the years have changed her body, babies and breastfeeding, and stretch marks. Still, she ends up muffling her cries because potential children were still about as Ken buries his own in her neck. Ken leaves the room first, letting Rilla have a moment to clean up and follow him down the stairs. She stays in the kitchen, her housekeeper who if anything was used to her employer's antics after so many years.
She helps peel the potatoes as she watches from the kind.
"Daddy! When did you get home?" Clara chirps seeing him at the back door. Jimmy is sitting outside watching her, raising an eyebrow slightly as he coughs. "Were you and Mommy napping together again?"
Rilla chokes slightly. That child would be the death of them, she swore it.
"Did you have a fun day?" Ken says asking her, trying not to answer the question.
"I made cookies with Aunty Lily, they are getting a new puppy, can we get a puppy Daddy?" she says chirping as she jumps up onto his back.
"Your mother will have my head if we had on to the household," Ken laughs.
"Off with your head then!" Clara exclaims racing towards the tree house and going for her play sword. "You will have to walk the plank or lose your head, Sir!"
"I shall do neither of those things, for who will buy you all of your toys then?" Ken chuckles.
"Jimmy will!" Clara declared.
"How much do you think I make little one," Jimmy laughs out loud. "You would bleed me dry with all of the toys you have!"
"I do not have many!" She stomps her foot. "I am going to be like Peter Pan and never grow up so I can have as many toys as I can have!" She says exuberantly.
"Well you fly like Peter Pan as well," Oliver says coming into the backyard.
"Do not egg on your sister Oliver," Ken warns him.
"I can already fly I have pixie dust and everything, Captain Hook will have no chance at making me grow up!" Clara states looking down at her brother.
"Clara," Ken warns her, but she does not listen as she jumps from the deck of the tree house.
"Clara!" Rilla shrieks, dropping her paring knife and her potato, racing out the door towards her daughter, as Ken races to catch her, and she giggles as she falls into his arms. Rotating her until she was in his arms until she was in will above his head flying. "You shouldn't jump around like that it's dangerous."
"She's fine Rilla, we were around. She knows better not to do that with me here," Ken brushes her off. "Right Clare-bear?"
"Uh-huh!"Clara giggles before shouting over what she sees over the portion of the fence. "Roe is talking to a boy!"
"A boy!" Ken says shocked.
"His name is Robert, Oliver says casually and everyone turns to him. "He's Allen's brother?" he adds on.
"Allen only has an older brother," Ken says matter-of-factly. "She's thirteen Oliver."
"Well, you try telling her that," Oliver says simply.
Ken looks over at Rilla, putting Clara down on the ground and walking over to the gate.
"Rowena?" He calls out as he opens the gate and she turns around face turning red at the sight of her father.
"Father," she said rather indigently and he raises his eyebrow at her choice of title.
"Robert Cooper," the boy says holding out his hand.
"So Oliver has said, what are you in grade eleven?" He asks as he feels his wife come up near them. He pulls her closer to them, wrapping his arm around her waist. "This is Robert Cooper, dear."
"Daddy," Rowena hisses and he ignores it was a smile.
"Nice to meet you both, Mr and Mrs. Ford." The older boy says nodding his head, and Rilla nods her head to him.
"Roe dear, I was at Aunt Lily's and she has your grade eight convocation dress ready for you," Rilla mentions.
"Mom!" She whines.
"Gloria is waiting for you to help with dinner tonight," Rilla tells her with a look.
"I'll see you around Robert," Rowena says to the boy and hears her father hum and stays where he stood. Rilla looks at him and follows Rowena inside.
"I can't believe you did that!" Rowena cries when the front door shuts behind them,
"You're thirteen Rowena," Rilla reminds her.
"So he's sixteen, Daddy was twenty-one when you danced at the lighthouse!" Rowena points out.
"I was fifteen and times were different Roe," Rilla says through a compassionate voice. "I'm just trying to tell you to be careful. You're a pretty young lady and I don't want to see you get hurt."
"He was just walking me home," Rowena tries to argue. "He was just being nice."
"I'm sure he was, but he also needed to know you were thirteen," Rilla stresses to her. "We aren't angry with you or him, we just needed him to know that you aren't even high school and to not get too ahead of himself. Now go change out of your dress and go help with dinner."
Rilla sighs watching her daughter slug up the stairs as she sees Ken on the front porch with Oliver talking as Oliver himself looks rather uncomfortable himself. She shakes her head and goes back towards the kitchen.
Leaving Ken and Oliver to finish, it takes a long moment before Ken nudges his son.
"There's a girl," he said quietly.
A Girl! God lord what is with this day, Ken thinks to himself.
"A girl?" Ken repeated a grin appearing on his face. "So what's the issue?"
Oliver shrugged not wanting to get into it, though Ken just sat grinning and waiting.
"Every time she says hello to me, I'm a jumbled mess and everyone just laughs at me. She goes to the girl's school across the street. There's a dance coming up and I swear she wants me to ask her but when I try…I mess up, I mean I ran away from her!"
"You know talking to girls isn't that different from talking to your friends?" Ken told him.
"Yet, she laughed when I stuttered slightly and then she touched my hair like it was cute or something. She touched my hair and then I bolted Dad!"
"Well, congratulations you're a love-struck like every other man out there. You know how I told you if you have to make a presentation in school and something happens to you? To just cover it with a duo-tang or book and just pretend like you aren't embarrassed?" He said as Oliver went red and nodded his head bashfully. "It's the same with girls, just pretend that you are talking to a friend. She's probably nervous as well."
"How did you ask out Mom?" Oliver asked curiously.
"Well, things were different back then," Ken said running a hand through his hair. "I believe we called it courting back then. I guess the first move I made was asking her to dance at her first 'grown-up' party. She was wearing this pretty green dress with flowers on it. We danced for a few songs, my ankle was still healing from being broken so then we sat down on the shore at the old lighthouse near the summer house, but I knew she was ultimately only fifteen at the time."
"So what did you do?" Oliver asked curiously.
"We wrote to each other, she had taken in Jimmy as a baby and I went back to Toronto for school as I couldn't enlist because of my ankle. The next year I managed to swing by Ingleside to see your mother. I believe I asked her not to kiss another until I came back to kiss her again. Which in many ways was asking her to wait for me to come back so I could marry her." Ken said with a nostalgic smile.
"Mom was only sixteen?" Oliver stated. "You told Doe that she couldn't get married until she was like twenty-one, let alone date until she was in high school."
Ken chuckled, how times have changed over the years, or maybe they thought they were just grown-up back then when they weren't.
"She was and I was twenty-two. I was afraid of your uncles and grandfather finding out more than going to war that night I think," Ken told his son. "The war though, that was three years of being over in Europe. Things were different then, I couldn't have her going off to find someone else. So I asked her to wait for me and she did?" Ken said.
"You always know the right thing to say, I see it when you work and talk to clients for advertising." Oliver groaned. "I don't have that talent, Doe might. She can talk to anyone and be charming about it."
"Rowena can be a snake charmer if she wanted to be, that is correct. What does your mother say? Some people are introverts, while others are extroverts or some sort of thing?"
"Introverts are quieter people, more thoughtful who don't mind being alone. While extroverts are louder and more social creatures who need that interaction." Oliver stated simply. "At least that's what I got from what she was going on about one night."
Ken chuckled once more. "Does that stop you from knowing what to say?"
"No, it just stops you from saying it at all," Oliver said deadpanned to his father who chuckled once again.
"Do you know where the girl lives?" Ken asked his son.
"She's Timothy Allen's younger sister," Oliver told him blushing. "Her name is Lucy."
"He's a year above you?" Ken asked as he went over to their address book where Rilla kept a book of parents from each of their children's schools. "Call her and ask her to the dance," Ken instructed him. "It might be easier over the phone. For both of you?"
"I can't!" Oliver objected as Ken already started to dial the phone number. Oliver fought for the phone.
"Hello, Mrs. Allen it's Kenneth Ford, Oliver's Father, yes yes, Rilla is well. Is it possible for Oliver to speak to Lucy? Of course, he's a little shy." Ken grinned before handing over the phone to his son. "She's been talking about you." He whispered with a grin.
"Dad!" Oliver went beat red, as they heard a voice come onto the line.
"Hello?" A feminine voice said and Ken nudged Oliver to speak before he walked to go braid his youngest daughter's hair as she asked.
"Uhh, Hi Lucy," Oliver said his voice cracking before it went low once more.