A Suitor for the Princess - Chapter 49

                           But then Mara should’ve been happy not uneasy. After all, heroes of romantic novels were supposed to be dashing and suave men who swept the women off their dainty feet! No, he decided, her ailment ran deep. It wasn’t just one factor but a combination of several others too. He wondered whether he could go and have a private conversation with her ‘shrink’. But he knew that Doctors kept the information about their patients strictly confidential. So who did that leave? Norman? It was out of the question? He’d demand an explanation from him (John) or snub him for prying into their personal affairs. Wasn’t Martha Norman’s fiancée?

                           He looked wistfully and longingly at the beautiful but prone figure lying in front of him, her hair tumbling to a side of the couch, her dress riding up her rounded, plump knees and her gorgeous face with slightly parted lips. Then he sprang up. What a fool he was? He should’ve first called a Doctor instead of imagining things. Where was his prudence? Then his eye fell on the writing pad. He was tempted to read her unfinished novel. Surely it would give him all the answers he needed. But now he had other things to do.

                         He debated with himself over whether to call a Doctor or Norman to the scene and promptly decided that Norman was the one to be informed first. In fact, he’d ask him to fetch a Doctor along with him to save time. He did just that. He sensed the curtness and the coldness in Norman’s forbidding voice that wondered what he was doing at Martha’s cottage at that late hour. “I’m sorry Norman. I’ll explain later. First things first! Please hurry up.” He hung up without much ado.

                         John looked around the kitchen, found some smelling salts from a labeled container, took a spoonful and held it under Martha’s straight nose. She immediately spluttered as the scent hit her and opened her eyes wide, looking around like a frightened kitten. This time she didn’t espy John. He had left the cottage in a jiffy and gone to sit in his car. He decided to wait there till Norman arrived. He hoped that it would be before Martha came out to check who was in that gray car in front of her cottage. Then he started the ignition and reversed it till he was at a safe distance from the cottage. He hoped that she hadn’t heard the car reversing. He didn’t want her passing out again. That would be too much!

                          Martha bolted from the couch and sat upright, getting her bearings. Why was she sleeping on that couch instead of her bedroom? She was perplexed. Had she gone off to sleep tired after writing? Wait a minute! Hadn’t she gone for a walk in the woods? When had she come back? With a sudden shudder she remembered seeing Juan at the door to her cottage, shrieking and passing out. Who had brought her, rather carried her into her cottage?

                        Then she saw the spoon of smelling salts that she had started stocking after her spells of fainting and realized that someone had indeed helped her right then. But who was that Samaritan and why was he nowhere to be seen? Was he elsewhere in the house, waiting for her to be revived? On the porch’s arm-chair? She got up cautiously and walked out slowly, fuzziness blocking her thoughts. She couldn’t see anyone around? That was strange. Again she started feeling scared.

                       Firmly she shook her head, went in, closed and latched the door securely behind her and went to make a strong cup of coffee for herself. The caffeine would do the trick and bring her to her senses. She regretted going back to her novel again against Norman’s specific instructions. She deserved it. The fainting spell, that is! But the smelling salts? From the kitchen to the living-room? That was a mystery. Where was her savior?

                           A screech of tyres made her jump. Even as she poured the piping hot coffee into her favorite mug, there was lots of pounding on the door. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she walked as casually as she could, peeped through the hatch and opened the door. Thank God, it was Norman. “What a pleasant surprise Norman? I was just hoping that I could see you and speak with you right now. Please have a seat. I’ll bring coffee for both of us then we can chat.” She escaped into the kitchen, not giving Norman a chance to even open his mouth. He just stood there gaping at her. She looked and behaved absolutely normal. Not in the least like what John had mentioned! If she had really fainted, she had regained her composure fairly soon!

                           He had spoken to John whom he chanced upon around the bend to Martha’s cottage and got the details. Not wanting an ugly confrontation that could end in fisticuffs, given the wild rage that he was in, Norman had calmly inquired from John about the whole episode, told him through clenched teeth to just mind his business thenceforth and gone onward to Martha’s cottage. A pale John had acquiesced and driven away, hurt by the implied guilt in Norman’s deadly soft voice. He knew that tone and what it meant! He had a lot of explanation to do the next morning, to Norman. A part of him realized that he deserved it and the other part stubbornly protested against the situation. It wasn’t fair. After all, he cared for Martha too, probably tenfold than Norman! But nothing on earth could alter the fact that Martha was Norman’s fiancée. 

To be continued... 

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