Charis (23 page)

When Ben came home he thought Jennifer was looking at him rather
strangely. “Is something wrong with me?” he asked her.

“No, nothing. I've just never thought of you as a romantic figure
before.”

Ben laughed. “You're joking,” he said. “One thing I'm definitely
not
is romantic.”

“Well, I think what you did for Charis in Cairo is very romantic,”
she retorted.

He turned to Charis. “What have you been telling her?” he wanted to
know.

“Jennifer was asking about Cairo,” she replied.

“So what did you tell her?”

“Pretty much everything. Well, not
everything
,” she grinned
with a slight blush. “Just the outline. Do you mind?”

He smiled back at her. “It's a bit late to ask me that
now
,
isn't it?  But no, I don't mind as long as you're okay with it.” Then he turned
to his sister, “But you needn't go blabbing about it to anyone. I know how well
you can't keep secrets, miss!”

“As if I would! Not about something as private and personal as
this.”

“Good,” said Ben. “See that it stays that way.”  And then to change
the subject he said, “When is David getting back, do you know?”

Later that night, as Charis and Ben were lying in bed together, he
asked, “Do you often think back to the first time we were together?”

“Almost every day,” she answered him.

“You were so scared.”

“Only until you came. That's what I remember. The minute you walked
through the door I knew I was safe.”

“I hurt you, a lot I think.”

“Yes,” she quietly admitted. “But it was all my fault. I got myself
into the situation. You were the one who got me out of it. I was the one who
insisted that you stay with me, and then you were so kind and I didn't mind
because it was you. If it hadn't been you it would have been so much worse.  I
really would’ve killed myself.”

“I'm so sorry. So very sorry.”

“Don't be sorry. Don't
ever
be sorry. You were kind and
gentle and I was so glad it was you.”

“But you didn't know it was me.”

“Yes, I think I did. Deep down I believe I always knew it was you. Maybe
not in my mind, but in my heart I knew. I’d loved you for so long.”

He took her in his arms and kissed her very gently, and then said, “What
did I ever do to deserve you? I cannot imagine my life without you, you fill my
heart and soul with indescribable joy.”

*****

Charis' favourite time of the day was in the evening. After dinner
she and Ben would cuddle up on the sofa. They didn't watch much television; neither
of them was a fan of soaps or reality TV or any of the current ‘pop’ culture. They
would turn it on for an occasional news programme and sometimes Ben watched a
bit of sport. He liked to watch cricket if England was playing and he’d been
known to watch football if Arsenal was winning, but they preferred to listen to
their favourite music and Ben was often working on his laptop, bringing medical
notes up to date or researching something, Charis never knew exactly what, so
she would stay next to him; reading or just sitting enjoying the peace and
contentment of being together. Then he would close his laptop, stand up and
take her hand and say, “It's time for bed, my love,” and he’d have that look in
his eyes that gave her goose bumps. Or if she'd had enough waiting for him to
finish she would say, “Let's go to bed now, please.”

And they'd go to bed - but not to sleep. 

Charis loved being a hostess and having friends around for the
evening. She’d always enjoyed cooking, and entertaining seemed to come
naturally, so occasionally they would invite people over for a meal and for
company. They saw a lot of Jennifer and David, since Jennifer spent a couple of
weekends each month with them, but they’d also invited James and Helen, Graham
and Allison, and the Chandlers, and even Imran and Mariyah. Emily and Giles had
come up for an occasional weekend, as had Amelia and Charles.

The latest to be invited were Tim and Janet. Ben and Tim had renewed
their friendship and Charis enjoyed socializing with Janet. There’d been only
one recurrence of Charis' nightmare since her session with Tim, and Ben had
made her talk it through in the morning and divulge more of her childhood
experiences. It had obviously helped because that was the last one…the last one
about the shed.

But now she had other dreams. Not enough to make her wake up
terrified, but enough that she felt in a panic in the dream, trying to run away
from it all. And when she woke, Henry’s face would be imprinted on her mind.

*****

Exactly one month after Christmas Lorraine had her baby, a little
boy they named Joshua. He came ten days early and was born at Willow Bend with
Ben as the attending doctor. However, that wasn't the way it was supposed to
happen. It just happened to be a weekend that Charis and Ben were visiting.
Lorraine and Simon had come for the afternoon and Lorraine went into labour. It
was all over very quickly, the ambulance arriving just ten minutes before the
baby was born, certainly not soon enough to get her to the hospital. If
Lorraine had been given time to think about it she would have been very
embarrassed to have her brother-in-law deliver her baby, but in the end, she
was glad he was there. Once again Charis was impressed with the way her husband
treated his patient; kind, gentle and thoughtful.

When I have a baby,
she thought,
I
want Ben to take care of me…no one else…just Ben…at home…just the two of us.
And she suddenly realised that it was the first time that she had thought
when
I have a baby
and not
if
.

It was late January when Helen rang back to ask Charis to be on her
show, due to start in a few weeks. Ben wasn't home so she’d had to take the
call herself, but managed to hold her own with Helen and said a definite, “No. You've
got Ben. One of us is enough.”

“Yes, but so many of our viewers want to see Ben's wife,” she
explained.

“Well, you can always re-run the tape of the show I did with you if
they really want to see me,” was Charis' response.

“Maybe I will then,” Helen said. “Are you free this coming weekend
to come for dinner, either Friday or Saturday?”

And the conversation went on to other things.

Ben was committed to do six more episodes beginning in the middle of
February. He certainly wasn't keen on the idea but not as worried as before. The
segment was extremely popular and he always had a long list of questions to
answer. There was one question that was asked frequently by viewers that Helen
had put off relaying to him, as it was rather personal, but eventually decided
that as so many people continued to ask the same question, she’d better include
it. Phrased in many different ways, the gist of it was, ‘Do you ever feel
attracted to any of your patients? You must see the bodies of beautiful women.
Are you ever tempted to have an affair?’

For Ben the short answer was easy. “No,” he said. “My patients are
just that - patients, and I never mix my professional life with my private
life. And even in my bachelor days I was never remotely tempted to go out with
or to have a relationship with a patient.” But then he went on to say, “Having
said that, I do have a few patients that I know outside of my professional
life,” and indicating Helen he said, “This lovely lady being one of them. But
it's easy for most doctors to separate their working life from their home life.
I suppose that some of my patients are probably considered beautiful, but I’m
not interested in their bodies except as it is necessary to treat them or take
care of their medical problems.” And with a smile he added, “Besides,
everything I ever personally wanted or hoped for I have at home with my wife.”

 About half way through the series Helen decided to introduce Charis
to her viewers as she’d now had even more requests to know to whom the doctor
was married. Charis couldn't understand why they were all so interested,
except, of course, that he was so drop dead gorgeous they probably wanted to
have her out of the way so they could have him.
Over my dead body
, she
thought and then laughed at herself. But the show went ahead and Helen not only
ran the clip of Charis' interview about her father, but had purchased the DVD
of the Music Academy concert and showed Charis' performances. Together it took
up almost the whole half hour. 

The next day Helen called her. “You'll never guess what's happened,”
she exclaimed. “You've got hundreds, literally hundreds of fan mail…people wanting
to see you and hear you sing and play the piano.”

“Well, they can
want
all they like,” retorted Charis,
“Because I'm not doing it.” She was adamant.

*****

It had been weeks since Charis received the last note from Henry
pushed through the door. And there had been no sightings of him while she’d
been out either. She breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Maybe it's all over,
she thought hopefully. After each call, or each note had appeared, and after
the violent trembling had stopped and the crippling fear subsided, Charis had
wondered what had turned Henry into the vile man he’d become. Was it just being
omitted from her grandfather’s will? Or was it more than that? Had Mildred been
as cruel to him when he was young as she’d been to her? But as the hours and
days passed after each incident, thoughts of Henry were pushed further to the
back of her mind. And then one day there was a small news item in the paper about
some big archaeological find somewhere in the Middle East and Henry had been
named as the leader of the expedition, so she knew she was safe from him…at
least for the time being.

Plans for Jennifer and David's wedding were taking shape. They’d
decided to keep it small, just close family and a few friends. It would be at
Willow Bend but too early in the year to be held in the garden, so Emily and
Giles were having some re-decorating done.

“It's about time, anyway,” said Emily. “It's been years since we've
done anything to the place.”

And of course there was the cruise. Life in the Covington household
was very busy for a few weeks. Emily and Giles were excited to be getting away
from it all and when they came home from the Mediterranean, they looked tanned,
relaxed and very happy.

Easter came and then the wedding. Ben and Charis were both in the
wedding party; Charis as a Matron of Honour, Amelia was the other, and Ben as
the Best Man, as David didn't have a brother and he and Ben had become very
good friends. David had an older married sister and her little girl Valerie,
and Jessica, one of the Covington granddaughters, were to be bridesmaids.
Charis had joked that being a Matron of Honour made her feel old.

Jennifer had loved the informality of Ben and Charis' wedding and
tried to make hers similar, more like a family party. But even though they’d
only invited family and a few friends, there was still a large group of people
there, as Jennifer's family was not small and neither was David’s. Everything
went without a hitch. Jennifer looked stunning in a traditional long white gown
and veil, her attendants all in peach.

All the guests had gone, the caterers had cleaned up and left the
kitchen tidy. Just Emily, Giles, Amelia and Charles, Ben and Charis were left.
They sat around the table in their big kitchen and Emily was looking very
pensive.

“What's bothering you, Mum?” asked Ben.

“Oh nothing and everything,” she responded. “I was thinking about
the house really. Now that your Dad has basically retired, you children all
married and settled, we are going to rattle around in this big, beautiful old
house, just Dad and I. What do we want eight bedrooms for? This huge big kitchen
and three reception rooms? And that massive conservatory? This house is a
family home! It needs children…it's always had children. We bought it when we
were first married and came here with four children. Since then it's been full
of fun and noisy chatter and laughter and busy life going on. That's what it
needs. I just don't know what we're going to do.”

Giles took his wife's hand. “We don't have to make any decisions in
a hurry,” he said. “We've got time to think and decide on our future. We have
known this day was coming for quite a long time and we'll do whatever makes you
happy.”

Half an hour later, Amelia and Charles having gone home and Ben and
Charis staying until the next day, the four of them sat chatting, and then Ben
said, “I've been thinking. You've always been happy here. You don't
really
want to move. You just want to have a full house, don't you?”

“I suppose so,” agreed Emily.

“Well then, it's big enough for you to invite a married child to return
and live here with you. You could still all have your own space. It would need
a bit of juggling around but it could work.  Neither Amelia and Charles, nor
Simon and Lorraine have their own home yet. They both work close enough to
commute, in Winchester and Romsey. What do you think?”

“It sounds like a great idea, do you think they would want to
though?” Emily turned to Giles and said, “What do you think?”

“It sounds like a good idea to me, too. But we'll need to think
about it and work on the logistics before we say anything to them.”