Christmas in Bluebell Cove (12 page)

 

Audiology came up with the findings that there
was
a perforated eardrum and bruising of the ear canal on the left side and that during the next few days they would be checking progress, or lack of it, with regard to the problem sorting itself out. They were also told that when her arm had been put in a cast and the cut on her head stitched Kirstie would be taken up to the children's ward to be with the rest of those who had been hurt.

Thankfully none of the injuries appeared to be life threatening, but the bus driver's condition was causing anxiety amongst the hospital staff, his relatives and everyone connected with the school

Dennis was a nice old guy who'd been driving all his life with never a bump or fault in any shape or form. It had taken an old tree battered by the winds to fall and put an end to one of the pleasures of his later years, driving young ones to and from their school.

In the midst of it all a member of staff from the hospital reception desk in the main hall came to say that the press had arrived and were asking to interview Ben.

Ethan frowned at the thought, but Francine was watching Ben's cheeks reddening and eyes widening at the thought of it and said, ‘Go with him, Ethan. Ben has something to be proud of. It would all have been so much worse if it hadn't been for his quick grasp of
the situation. Let him have his special moment. I'll stay with Kirstie.'

‘Yes, of course. You are right as always,' he told her heavily, but he had a smile for Ben. ‘We have an amazing son.'

She wasn't always right, Francine reflected when they'd gone, and it wasn't what he really thought. Hopefully soon he might have cause to change his mind.

‘They've taken my picture, Mum,' Ben cried when they came back, ‘and it's going to be in the papers!'

‘Yes, indeed,' Ethan agreed, looking slightly less grim, and then went to try to explain to Kirstie what was happening, but she couldn't hear him, and he and Francine exchanged anxious glances.

 

Kirstie was settled in the ward now and feeling more cheerful in the company of some of her friends, yet still very upset about her hearing loss, and no way were they going to leave her for a moment unless they had to.

Ethan was on the point of taking Ben home and then coming back to join Francine for the night when Lucas appeared, having just come out of Theatre and heard about the accident.

‘I'm due to leave for home shortly. I'll take Ben with me and he can sleep at our place for the night,' he offered, ‘so that you two don't need to leave Kirstie.' He ruffled Ben's dark locks. ‘l shall be wanting your autograph, and when Jenna hears about what you did she'll have lots of hugs for you.'

‘She won't, will she?' he exclaimed in boyish dismay, and the two men laughed.

 

Ethan had been down to one of the hospital shops and bought a pad and pen so they could write everything down for Kirstie and that had cheered her up a little, but her head was aching from the injury, and her arm felt heavy and cumbersome from the cast they'd put on it.

When he looked around him it was clear that they were no different from any of the other parents whose children had been injured in various ways and didn't want to leave them under the circumstances.

‘Can you imagine how it would have felt if you'd been in France when this happened?' he commented soberly, and watched her expression change from caring mother to that of chastised wife and quickly added, ‘That was not meant as a criticism. It was just a comment. And will you please go into the parents' room at the end of the corridor and lie down for a while? You look exhausted.

‘Kirstie has had some pain relief so may sleep the rest of the night once it kicks in, and you must try to do the same for both your sake and the little one's. I'll be around all the time if she needs either of us.'

‘All right,' Francine agreed mechanically, and as she eased herself down onto a sofa that was for the use of visitors staying overnight she thought that however Ethan might have meant what he'd said, it was true. By cutting herself off from them for part of the time, as she had been doing, she could easily have not been there for Kirstie.

But it wouldn't have been like that if he had let her have her dream instead of leaving her to make it come true without him, and that had been a vain hope. It hadn't worked because without him she was nothing.

She hadn't admitted it to herself during the long
months while they'd argued about her wanting to live in France, but since she'd got her wish and found it not to be as rewarding as she'd promised herself it would be, slowly but surely she was facing up to the fact that life without Ethan was no life.

If she loved him as much as she hoped he loved her, she should be willing to live with him in an igloo at the North Pole if need be.

 

Daylight brought with it some reassurance for most of the injured children and their families, but for Kirstie the hearing problem still prevailed and Ethan explained to her gently that it could be a few days before they saw any change.

Jenna arrived with Ben quite early. He'd been fretting to know how Kirstie and the other injured children were and, besides, she had to be at the surgery for half past eight.

She had a message from Barbara to deliver. ‘Mum says to tell you how sorry she is to hear about the accident and hopes that Kirstie and all of those who were injured will soon be home. How is Dennis this morning, do we know?'

‘Not as yet,' Ethan told her, ‘but I popped into Intensive Care during the night and the nurses on duty said there was a slight improvement in his condition. His arm and shoulder were shattered from the impact of the tree and he'd been in Theatre for hours.'

When she was on the point of leaving he said, ‘Put Leo in the picture, will you, Jenna? I've got my mobile with me in case he needs me for anything, and do tell your mother thanks for her message.'

‘She's known Dennis for years.' she said sombrely as she reached for her car keys.

But Dennis wasn't out of danger yet as one of the parents who'd been to see him had just come back with the news that the injured bus driver had just had a heart attack.

 

Later in the morning they left Ben with Kirstie while they went for a quick bite and while they were waiting to be served Francine said, ‘I was only catnapping during the night, you know. I saw you every time you came to check on me, so now what about some sleep for you?'

He shook his head. ‘Not until the doctor has done his rounds. Leo has called from the surgery and everything is under control there. The district nurse who's filling in for Phoebe is off with a strained back, which as we both know goes with the job, but that is the only problem at the moment and she's hoping to be in tomorrow.'

Ethan's dedication to the practice would always be part of their lives. He would never want to give it up in a thousand years. she thought. She must have been insane to ever think he would.

 

They were back on the ward, the doctor was approaching, and everything else was forgotten as they listened to what he had to say after he'd examined Kirstie.

‘I note that the hearing is no better,' was his first comment to Francine and Ethan. ‘We must give the eardrum time to heal. It will be some weeks before the cast on the arm can be removed, but it should be as good as new. Let's take a closer look at the head wound.'

A nurse had taken off the bandaging in readiness for his visit and as he observed it keenly he pronounced,
‘There doesn't appear to be any infection, but there might be a scar when it has healed properly and the stitches have been removed. If there is, we can decide what to do about it then.'

‘We'll be keeping Kirstie in for a few days,' he told them. Glancing around the ward, he said, ‘It would seem that she won't be short of company.'

 

By Thursday they were still going back and forth to the hospital to be with their daughter. But, they'd spent the night before at their respective houses at Kirstie's insistence because she was feeling much better.

Her head didn't hurt so much because it was healing and she'd got used to the cast on her arm. All they needed now was for her hearing to come back of its own accord.

Kirstie met them at the door of the ward, pushing a wheelchair that one of her school friends was using due to the leg fracture she'd received in the bus crash, and as they observed her cautiously Kirstie said, ‘Say something, Mum.'

‘Hello, my darling,' Francine said slowly.

‘I heard you!' she cried. ‘Not as loud as I'm used to, but I heard what you said. The doctor has been to see me and says I'm going to have another X-ray and if it shows that everything is all right inside my ear, I can come home!'

‘Wonderful' Ethan said huskily. ‘I have to go to the surgery but will be back shortly so don't go away, will you, Kirstie?'

 

He had to go to the surgery to keep a nine o'clock appointment with a patient who was dreading the results
of tests that he'd had taken, and he wanted to be there as the man was a friend as well as a patient and had a disabled wife to cope with, who was not always the easiest of people to deal with.

Keith Balfour was already seated in the waiting room when he arrived, looking as if he was on a knife edge, and Ethan wasted no time in calling him into his consulting room.

‘Tell it to me straight, Ethan,' Keith said when he'd settled himself at the other side of the desk.

‘Of course,' he told him. ‘I would be doing you no favours if I didn't, Keith. Your count has gone up from seven to nine and a half, which is not good, but we're not panicking yet. If it had shot up to twenty there would be cause for concern, but you haven't reached that point yet. If you had we would be thinking about prostate cancer and it would be action stations, usually a strong blast of radiotherapy in an uncomfortable place.'

‘Remember this, I'll be keeping a close watch on you, and the hospital will be sending you regular appointments for the urology clinic. So go home and don't let the worry of it get a stranglehold on you. Do I take it that Barbara and Jenna don't know you have this problem?'

‘Yes, that's correct. I don't want Barbara to know because she relies on me so much, and I haven't told Jenna because these are precious days for her, the first months of her marriage and a baby on the way. I don't want to spoil them. Time enough to tell them both when and if I find I have something that has to be said, and you've put my mind at rest for the time being anyway.'

He'd endured a lifetime with Barbara which couldn't have been easy, knowing her, and wouldn't put the blight
on his daughter's happiness by burdening her with the huge worry he was carrying around with him.

Comparing Keith and Henri, his French father-in-law whom he'd loved and respected, with his own father, who moaned and grumbled all the time, was like putting silk beside sackcloth.

 

After a quick chat with Leo he set off for the hospital once more to join Francine and Kirstie with hope in his heart, and on arriving called first to see Dennis, the bus driver, who had survived the heart attack and was slowly recovering from his injuries.

‘Where's your lad, Dr Lomax?' he asked. ‘He saved my life, you know, by stopping the bus. I shudder to think what would have happened to me and those youngsters if he hadn't.'

‘Ben is back at school Dennis,' he told him. ‘And now that you're feeling a little better, I know he'd love to come and see you.'

‘Does he want to be a doctor like you?' he asked, and Ethan laughed.

‘No, not at all. Ben's passion is for cars, and we're fairly sure he will pursue a career in that field in some form or other.'

When he arrived back at the ward Francine and Kirstie had just been given the results of the tests that Kirstie had had earlier, and although her hearing wasn't yet back to normal, the signs were there that it was returning, and she was being discharged with instructions to come back to see a consultant audiologist in a week's time for further checks.

 

It was midday. Francine and a happy Kirstie were back at Thimble Cottage and Ethan was about to go to
the practice. On the point of leaving he was aware of Francine's pallor and the dark circles beneath her eyes and suggested that she go to bed for the afternoon with the assurance that he would make the evening meal.

‘It is just stress that is making me look like this,' she said. ‘I'll be fine now we have Kirstie home.' When he'd gone she went upstairs and phoned the solicitor who was acting for her in the divorce to request her to stop the proceedings.

She had already decided that the French dream was over, knew that was all it had ever been, and Kirstie being hurt had been another prod to her conscience. It had reminded her of the day when the vicar's wife had brought their son to her with the serious chest infection, and how when they'd gone she'd shuddered at the thought of not being there for a child of hers when she was needed. That could easily have been the case over the past week, but the fates had been kind.

She felt better after that and when Ethan arrived home in the evening after taking up the reins at the practice once more there was colour in her cheeks and a new sense of purpose in her expression.

I
T WAS
half-term at Ben and Kirstie's school and Ethan was happier than he'd been in a long time because his daughter's hearing had righted itself, the head injury was healing satisfactorily, and the only reminder of the accident was the cast on her arm, which most of her school friends had written on.

Added to his relief was the knowledge that Francine hadn't been across the Channel of late. He'd made no comment, been content to watch developments with spirits rising, until on the Friday night in the middle of the two-week break she'd said, ‘Can we go back to our routine of you having the children for the weekend as you usually do when I'm away, and could you keep them with you for the rest of the week as well? It seems like a lifetime since I was in France and as they're on holiday—' She'd seen his expression and her voice trailed away.

He'd been crazy to think she'd given up on it, he thought grimly. When he'd accused her of having it all sorted and fitting him into her life when it suited her, he hadn't been wrong. What a fool to think all the misery was going to go away because Francine hadn't been to Paris of late.

‘Of course I'll have the children,' he'd said tightly. ‘Some of us are contented with our lot. But not you, it would seem. I should have known better than to think you might have come to your senses.' To add to his annoyance he'd registered that she was smiling.

So she'd gone early on Saturday morning, this time not just with an overnight bag but with a sizeable suitcase, and fool that he was Ethan had taken her to the railway station to catch a London train as this time she was travelling to France by train to avoid flying in a state of advanced pregnancy, and he wanted to make sure she was safely on her way to get the London connection before he left her. But there were no fond goodbyes, just a peck on the cheek before she boarded the Paris train.

 

Inside the house that had been the cause of the disruption in their lives it was the same as always, the feeling of quiet emptiness as if it had been waiting for her, and she felt as if she wanted to go from room to room to tell it that it was going to have to be goodbye.

She'd come for a longer stay to arrange the inside as attractively as she could before she put it on the market, having decided that it needed to be out of her life completely if it couldn't be totally in it.

Once it was sold she wouldn't pine to live there any more. It would be the end of a chapter and a new beginning with Ethan.

It took all weekend to arrange it as she wanted, as well as Monday and Tuesday, and on the Wednesday she asked an estate agent in the centre of Paris to send someone give her a valuation on the assumption that if she was satisfied with it they could put it on the market.

When they'd been and gone she stood in the middle of the sitting room and wept. Yet she was at peace with herself for the first time in months, and for what was left of the week she spent the time seeing all the places that she loved especially, telling herself that she wasn't going to disappear from the face of the earth and neither was Paris.

She hadn't actually accepted the valuation on the spot, but once she was home and had considered it she would either consult another firm for comparison or tell the first one to go ahead. Soon it would be time to show Ethan where her loyalties lay.

That was her thought, until she arrived back in Bluebell Cove on the following Saturday morning to discover that her father-in-law had been hospitalised with a stroke and Ethan and the children were on their way to Bournemouth to see him. He'd left a note explaining the situation, and at the bottom had put:

Lastly, as an afterthought, he'd written,
Hope you enjoyed France
.

She groaned. Just as she'd got to the point of putting everything right between them this had happened, and it stood to reason that Ethan wouldn't be thrilled at having to take Ben and Kirstie with him at such a worrying
time, when if she'd been there he wouldn't have had to. Was she ever going to get anything right again? she thought as she picked up the phone to ring his parents' number in the hope that he would be there.

‘I've just read your message,' she told him when he answered. ‘I'm so sorry about your father. How bad is the stroke?'

‘Not as bad as it might have been. Mum is with him now. The children and I have just got back from the hospital,' he said in flat tones. ‘I've spoken to the consultant on the stroke unit and he's anticipating partial recovery, but I can't see Dad being a good patient! Fortunately Mum is used to him and has plenty of stamina. We'll be leaving here Sunday lunchtime if there are no further concerns about him and hopefully will be back in time for the bonfire.'

‘I'll have a meal ready,' she promised.

Into the pause that followed he said, ‘No need. There'll be lots of food at the bonfire. How are you and the baby? You never phoned while you were there.'

‘Neither did you,' she pointed out mildly.

‘That might be because I haven't had a minute to spare. Francine, you didn't answer my question.'

‘Both mother and child are fine. The new year is going to bring you joy, Ethan.'

She wasn't sure if he'd heard the last part of what she'd said as he was saying, ‘I'll have to go. Mum has just come back from the hospital and I want to hear the latest about Dad.'

‘Give her my love,' she said gently. Jean Lomax was a gem of a mother-in-law. They'd been good friends from the moment of meeting.

 

For the rest of the weekend Francine couldn't settle. She'd come back from France ready to tell Ethan that she was home to stay, and the moment had been postponed because of his absence and the reason for it.

The three of them arrived home late Sunday afternoon, as he'd hoped they might, and after she'd held Ben and Kirstie close she turned to Ethan, not expecting any warm embraces from that source after the way they'd parted at the railway station, but when their glances met there was warmth in his as he observed her and the child she was carrying.

She was back, the wife who had become a stranger with agendas of her own that she rarely shared with him. He hated her being alone in the French house, but at least when it was just for the weekend she was home almost as soon as she'd gone, but this time it had been a long and miserable week without her.

Yet thinking back to the first time she'd gone there without him and taken the children with her, a week was nothing compared to the months of separation then that had ended with her unexpected arrival in Bluebell Cove on Christmas Eve.

Soon the calendar would have gone full circle and another new year would be upon them with another child to love, and where would their relationship go from there?

‘So how is your dad today?' she was asking, bringing his sombre thoughts back to the present.

‘Improving. Some of the use has come back into his legs, which is where the stroke had the most effect, but it is early days. They won't be sending him home yet and I don't want them to, for my mother's sake.'

Ben and Kirstie were already upstairs, putting on
warm clothes to keep them snug at the bonfire and anxious to be off to meet their friends, while Francine and Ethan followed at a slower pace, each with their thoughts in very different channels.

Food was on offer in the community centre just down the road, traditional fare such as parkin, hot soup, and chestnuts and potatoes roasted in the fire that was already glowing red, and all around them with its own special kind of warmth was the community feeling.

The local bobby was there, out of uniform but keeping a watchful eye on the proceedings, and a fire engine was parked not far away just in case, all part of the usual routine on Bonfire Night.

Something that wasn't expected was the arrival of Dennis, recently out of hospital and looking pale and drawn but with a smile on his face as he asked a couple of teenage girls, ‘Is young Ben Lomax here?'

‘Yes,' one of them told him. ‘He's over there, kicking a ball about with his friends.'

‘Would you mind asking him to come across? I want a word with him.'

‘You're the driver on the school bus, aren't you?' the other girl said.

‘Not any more. The tree that fell put paid to that,' he said wryly, and watched as they went to deliver his message.

When Ben heard who it was asking to see him he left what he was doing straight away. He'd been to see Dennis a few times in hospital and the elderly bus driver had really appreciated it. To discover that he was now back home with his family was great news.

‘I've brought you something, laddie,' Dennis said when he came galloping up, and he presented Ben with
a gift-wrapped parcel. ‘It's to say thanks for what you did. Your parents must be very proud of you.'

‘We are,' Ethan told him as he and Francine approached, delighted to see Dennis at the bonfire and curious to know why he was there.

A crowd was gathering, also curious, and when they saw Ben and Dennis together someone shouted, ‘Three cheers for Ben Lomax, our local hero.' And having got used to being a celebrity, he bowed amidst the cheers.

When everyone had dispersed and gone back to their enjoyment of the night, Ben opened the parcel and gave a whoop of delight when he saw what was inside. Dennis had given him a collector's piece, a pewter desktop model of a Ferrari, and was smiling as he witnessed his young friend's pleasure.

After they'd chatted for a while Ben took him to the community centre for some food and a rest and Ethan said laughingly, ‘If it goes on like this, our son won't be able to get a baseball cap to fit his head.' As Francine sparkled across at him it was a special moment of the kind that had become all too rare.

He ached with love for her and all the time wished he'd handled it better when the subject of them going to live in France had first cropped up. He'd once thought he must be the only man in the world who'd had to compete with a house for his wife's affections. Yet it applied both ways, Francine coming second to a medical practice, or so she saw it.

In the light of the fire her face was indescribably beautiful with its fine bone structure and lovely green eyes. He hoped the baby she was carrying would have its mother's grace and attractiveness, as Kirstie and Ben did.

Jenna and Lucas were there and when they met up with them the two women were soon engrossed in baby talk and the men in medical matters.

From Lucas came a comment that he'd seen Barbara at his clinic a few days ago and she'd been in reasonable health considering the state of her heart and her debilitating rheumatoid arthritis.

‘In fact, my mother-in-law was quietly content, happy almost,' he'd said ‘and whatever the reason, I hope she'll be in the same frame of mind when her grandchild arrives.'

‘You need have no doubts about that,' Ethan told him. ‘Barbara will be over the moon when she and Keith become grandparents, and without my betraying a patient's confidence, keep an eye on Jenna's father, will you? He's the one with health problems at the moment, but doesn't want to worry his wife and daughter for the time being.'

When they strolled along to the community centre Leo was there, chatting to Lucy, the elderly practice nurse, and Ronnie, the lifeguard, who wasn't looking quite so bronzed in the chill of winter.

The Enderby family was also there and as Ethan chatted to the villagers who depended on him for their good health Francine thought with sudden wistfulness that she
was
doing the right thing in selling the house in France.

His happiness came first. The children were easy enough to please because they were only young, but Ethan's contentment was a different matter, and with regard to that there was the valuation she'd been given the week before. At the time it had seemed reasonable but having checked house prices on the Internet that
morning before Ethan and the children had arrived home, she was regretting having only asked for one. Her parents wouldn't want her to sell their beautiful house for less than its worth.

The fact that she was selling it at all would be unexpected to everyone except herself, and come Monday morning she would arrange for other valuations to be done, with each property firm gaining access with the key that was in the keeping of her French solicitor.

It would delay telling Ethan of her decision for a little while longer, but she did want it to be already on the market when she told him, so that he would see just how much she was prepared to forget her dream.

 

Preparations for another Christmas in Bluebell Cove were under way as soon as Bonfire Night was past and with each reminder of it came the thought for both Francine and Ethan that soon their baby would be born into a new year shrouded in uncertainty.

One day in late November Ethan had a phone call from Barbara, asking him to stop by the first chance he got as there was something she wanted to discuss with him.

She gave no inkling of what it was and he was curious, as with complete confidence in him she never interfered with the practice—or his private life, for that matter, though she had been rather sour towards Francine when she'd come back to Bluebell Cove.

On the evening of the same day he went to Four Winds House and, leaving her husband to watch television, Barbara took Ethan into her study and once they were settled asked, ‘Are you happy with your life, Ethan?'

He was observing her with raised brows and questioned, ‘Why do you ask?'

‘Because I care about you. I've watched you over past months and can see that you're pulled two ways by your dedication to the practice and your wife's longing to return home since she lost her parents.'