A Suitor for the Princess - Chapter 22

                 As a cold draught hit her, Martha stirred. She put her pen down and stretched her hands outwards to ease her aching shoulders. When she tried to bring them down again, she realized that some powerful force wasn’t allowing them to come down again.  She twisted her head awkwardly and saw Sara looking at her venomously. She shrieked and slumped on her desk, her hands limply hanging by her sides. The phone began to ring just then. It continued to ring shrilly….. The person at the other end of the receiver froze! It was Norman.

                 “What’s the matter, dear? Why have you gone so pale? Is everything all right at your office?” Nancy called out to him from her bed. He turned to face her with sad eyes. He could’ve kicked himself for making that call from her bedroom instead of going to the study. He had assumed that she was sound asleep. But she had just proved him wrong!

                 “It’s not my office that’s the cause of my worry Nancy.” “Then is it a woman? Do you have a woman in your life right now, Norman?  Now I realize that after such a long time, you must be definitely seeing someone. It was very selfish of me to have called you here. Please forgive me!” Tears rolled down from her eyes. Norman immediately came near her, sat down and hugged her. They were quiet for some time before Norman said quietly, “Yes, I’m seeing a wonderful woman named Martha. I’m sure that you’ll like her, were you to ever see her.”

                 Seeing the stricken look on her sallow face, he realized his faux pas. Too late! The damage was done. Nancy pushed his arms away, took a pillow and started sobbing loudly into it. He had called Martha a wonderful woman! In front of his ex-wife suffering from cancer! How insensitive of him! He really felt like punching himself for his lack of diplomacy.

                  He decided to salvage the situation by declaring that he was hungry and he would get her tray too so that they could’ve lunch cozily in the bedroom itself. Perhaps she’d feel better.

                “Norman, please don’t bother! Send the maid with the tray here and you have lunch on the dining table. I, I wish to be alone for some time ……” He hovered around her for a few moments and seeing that she resolutely refused to look at him, he shrugged wearily and made his way to the dining room. His thoughts were in turmoil. He had blundered and how!

                 He wondered what would’ve been Martha’s reaction to his faux pas. Then he remembered that the phone in her cottage had just kept ringing endlessly till he had disconnected the line uneasily. Now that unease returned. He decided to just have a glass of orange juice and skip lunch altogether. He felt wretched. He gave the necessary instructions to the full-time maid, Gina and retired to his room. That room had once been his. Now he was just a stranger biding his time there.

                  He started imagining what must’ve happened to his beloved Martha, back at that cottage. Had she had another of her bouts of hallucinations? He’d have to cajole her somehow to visit a psychiatrist, once he returned to Yorkshire. He had a problem on his hands there. But he didn’t want to lose her at any cost. Here he had offended his ailing wife. Life appeared complicated to him. Then he shook off the looming depression and decided that he’d face all the challenges head-on! Didn’t challenges make life worthwhile?

                  Whom could he ask to go and check in on Martha? he wondered. Dorothy? He shook his head. Not after what Martha had told him, about her fancy for him! He felt like taking the next flight and flying there, but how could he leave Nancy now? Wouldn’t it be too heartless, adding insult to injury? Then he decided to call Martha again and see whether she responded then. He’d be greatly relieved if his fears were unfounded and she could give a plausible reason for not attending his earlier phone call. With great trepidation, he dialed her number.

                   Nancy was listening eagerly, from the extension in her room. They had installed an extension in her room to keep tabs on her well-being in case she suddenly didn’t feel well. Well, she thought, now she was unwell, not because of her ailment but because of heart-break, the second time! Norman! She heaved, as she strained to listen to the conversation. Yes, she was behaving improperly, but who cared! She had almost decided that she’d implore Norman to be with her till her last breath, when he had admitted to an affair! Very unfair, she said to herself. Why was life dealing her one hefty blow after the other? Did she even deserve to live now? Even for the meager days of life left in her kitty?

                      As the phone rang incessantly, Martha was disturbed from her stupor. She sat up and looked around her, dazed. Then she picked up the receiver and said “Hello?“slowly. She wasn’t sure about where she was or even who she was! A strong voice, vaguely familiar, boomed into the receiver, “Hello, Martha, hello, are you listening darling? Hope you are fine. Why didn’t you pick up the phone two hours earlier?”

                   “Darling!” The word plunged a cold dagger into her warm heart. She could already feel the blood spurting out. Red, hot and vile! Once she had been his Darling. Now another darling had replaced her coolly. Was it so easy to forget one’s past and one’s love? If so, why hadn’t she ever remarried again, never found true love again? She found it unbearable to hear the affection in his voice, for another lady! She felt insanely jealous. She was breathing very heavily now.

                   “Who is it? I’m sorry, I can’t place you!” Martha was saying as Norman listened, disbelief and anxiety writ large on his face. His worst fears were coming true. Martha was in the early stages of dementia. She needed help immediately.

To be continued..... 

The copyright of this novel is with Mrs. Priya Ramesh Swaminathan.