Charis (16 page)

It was five in the afternoon before they left to drive back to
London and their Chelsea home. It had felt to Charis as though she’d been accepted
as one of the family now…that at last she had a family of her own. There were
hugs and kisses all around before they left.

“Please don't leave it too long before you come again,” said Emily.

And they promised.

*****

Life for Charis and Ben gradually settled into a routine. Ben left
for work each morning at about ten minutes to eight. He preferred to walk as
the Health Centre was just a few streets away, but as most days he also was
doing consultancy work for the NHS, and would have to travel between hospitals,
he ended up driving a lot of the time. He was never sure what time his work day
would end so he tried to text Charis in the late afternoon with an approximate
time, as she liked to have dinner cooking when he got home.

As for Charis, she’d begun teaching at the music academy on Tuesdays
and Thursdays from ten ‘til four, and she’d started helping Sam Chandler in his
little book shop on the other mornings of the week. She thoroughly enjoyed it.
Sam was getting near to retirement and was trying to find a buyer for his shop.
Once it was sold her job there would end.

At least once a week they tried to arrange their schedules so they
could meet and have lunch together. The days that Charis taught at the music
academy, she didn't take a lunch time – she just packed a sandwich to eat
between lessons – but on the days she worked for Sam she was free after noon
and could arrange any time to suit Ben.

The first time they met, on his very first day at work, instead of
texting her, he’d sent her a beautiful bouquet of two dozen roses in shades of
pink and cream with a note to tell her that he loved her and that his morning
appointments at the health centre finished about one, so she arrived just as he
was due to finish. She walked up to the reception desk and Kathy, the
receptionist, smiled at her and said, “He'll be done in just a minute, Mrs.
Sinclair.”

Charis noticed his office door down the passageway open and out
walked Ben with his patient, who was heavily pregnant. Ben had is head bent
forward, listening to her speak as he ushered her up to the reception desk, his
hand gently on her back. He glanced up at Charis and gave her a smile, but most
of his attention was on his patient.

“Kathy,” he said to the receptionist. “Mrs. Reeve is to be admitted
early tomorrow morning. We don't want her to go any longer before getting these
babies out.” Then he turned back to Mrs. Reeve and said, “You need to be here
by seven-thirty in the morning. I'll see you at eight-thirty and we'll have
those two here by the evening. Kathy will make all the arrangements for you and
I'll see you in the morning.” He smiled at her before turning to Charis. He put
his arm around her and kissed her lightly on her forehead. Quietly she thanked
him for the beautiful roses.

“Were they beautiful?” he asked. She nodded with a smile. “I wanted
beautiful flowers for my beautiful wife. I'm glad you liked them. Come with me
to my office, sweetheart. I just need to get my jacket and then we can go.”   Charis
was aware that several patients in the waiting room were watching intently as
they made their way back down the hall.

Their weekends together were very precious as, too, were the
holidays they tried to arrange. The staff at the Health Centre had a rota for
summer holidays and Ben had asked her where she would like to go on his two
weeks off.

“Well,” she said. “One day I would like to go to Keswick and see
where my Dad grew up, but I don't think that August would be a very good time
to go to the Lake District - it would be too crowded. Do you think we could go
to Cornwall? I haven't been since I was seven.”

“That might be crowded, too,” Ben replied.

“I expect everything will be,” she agreed.

So they postponed any decision for the time being.

Life is full of many little coincidences and just two days after
their conversation about summer holidays they got a phone call from Tricia
Maitland. She sounded excited.

“My daughter is getting married,” she said. “And we'll be going home
for the wedding – two weeks in August. I’m not sure how you feel about the
house being empty. We thought we would give Rosa and Amy (the American staff
they’d brought with them) time at home, too. Perhaps you know of someone who
would be willing to house sit?” she asked.

Almost not daring to ask Charis said “When?”

“Twelfth to the twenty-seventh,” came the reply.

“Do you mind if it's Ben and me?”

“Really? You'd be willing to do that?”

“Willing?” Charis almost shouted with excitement. “Oh, we would love
to! Ben has time off work from the hospital then – it would be perfect!” She
turned to him to ask, “Would you mind? Could we go?”

Ben was delighted to see her excitement. “Of course we can go,” he
said. “It couldn't be more perfect.”

So their holiday was planned. Two weeks at Meadow Lea Hall.

“We'll go to Cornwall and we'll go to Keswick…but another time,” he
promised her.

*****

August was going to be busy. Early in the month was Charles and Amelia’s
wedding. It was also Charis’ twenty-first birthday and Ben wanted to make sure
it was something really special, as he knew she hadn't had a proper birthday
celebration since she was seven years old. It was going to take some thought
because he knew she wasn’t one who usually enjoyed parties or fuss and it would
fall while they were staying at Meadow Lea Hall, so he was in a quandary trying
to decide what to do for her, although he’d already arranged for her present. He
talked to Helen and his mother to see if they had any thoughts to offer on the
matter. They both promised they would think about it and get back to him, so
for the time being he put it to the back of his mind and allowed it to stew for
a while. But something happened that pushed out all thoughts of August, Meadow
Lea Hall, holidays and birthdays.

One day early in July, Charis was preparing dinner when the phone
rang. It was Ben - most unusual as he usually just texted her.

His voice sounded strange. “Don't hold dinner for me,” he said. “I
have no idea how long I'll be. An emergency has come up and I have to stay as
long as I'm needed. I'll try and let you know a bit later when I'll be home.”

His next communication was a text.
Still can't leave. Don't wait
up. I love you.

By this time in their marriage Charis was getting used to him having
to be at some hospital at all hours. Babies don't arrive to order - they come
in their own sweet time, so she assumed that it was some poor woman having a
difficult birth.

As the next day was Saturday, and as she didn't have to be up early,
she decided to wait for him, curled up on the sofa with a favourite book and a
mug of hot chocolate. It was long after midnight when she finally heard the car
pull into the garage. She’d just been drifting off to sleep. Several minutes
went by and Ben still hadn't come inside. Worried, she stood up and moved
towards the door when she heard the car door shut and his footsteps approaching
the door. When it opened, he stood there looking totally haggard with an
expression on his face that she couldn't decipher. As she walked toward him, he
opened his arms to her, held her close, buried his face on her shoulder and cried.
She was at a loss what to do. He was always the strong one, the one who did all
the comforting. Charis held him and stroked his head and kissed his cheek,
wiped his eyes with her hands until he finally managed to regain control of his
emotions and they went and sat on the sofa together.

Many minutes passed in silence until he had full command of himself
and said, “I'm sorry. I couldn't hold it in any longer.”

“It's okay,” she soothed. “What happened? Will it help to talk about
it?”

“I really don't want to bother you with it. It'll upset you too and
there's no point in us
both
being upset.”

“Ben, I want to share your life. I know I can't go to work with you
and share your job, but I can share the worries that you have. And if it helps
to talk about it, I would like to listen.”

He’d sat silently for a few minutes and then he’d started to talk. “I
was doing a regular stint at the obstetric clinic this afternoon when there was
an emergency call from A&E. They needed me to go and attend to a patient.
Unusual but not unheard of. I couldn't believe what I saw when I got there.  A
little girl, three years old, covered in blood and still bleeding.” He’d
started to cry again. She waited quietly until he could go on. “She’d been
raped. Raped by her mother's so called boyfriend. So brutally raped that her
internal organs were damaged. We couldn't do anything for her. We couldn't stop
the bleeding. We tried everything we could think of but the damage was just too
bad.  Fortunately she was not conscious so I don't think she was aware of any
pain, although she kept whimpering. Such a sweet little girl. How could anyone
do such a thing? To anyone, let alone a child? Such a little child.”

She had no idea what to say to comfort him, so she didn’t speak…just
held him and wiped his tears. Eventually she asked, “I'm so sorry, so very
sorry, for her, for her mother, for you. What happened?”

“She died,” he said. “We couldn't do anything to save her. We knew
she was going to die, but I couldn't just leave her. They'd had to sedate her
mother…she was hysterical. That's why I was so late. I had to wait…wait until
she'd gone.”

“What a terrible thing…a really…terrible thing,” Charis said, her
sympathy obvious. “But at least now she’s free from pain and at peace.”

They sat in silence for a little longer, then he said, “There are
times when I am totally ashamed of my sex…of being a man. Such an animal! Such
a bastard! How could anyone do such a thing?” he asked again.

“Did the police catch him?” she asked.

“Oh, yes! The child's mother heard her little girl screaming and
caught him in the act. She hit him over the head and knocked him out and then
dialled 9-9-9. They got him alright. Just as well because if I'd come close
enough to him, I’d’ve killed him.”

Charis made him a cup of hot chocolate, sat with him while he drank
it, and then they slowly climbed the stairs and went to bed, knowing that it
was going to be a long night…that neither of them would get much sleep.

They spent that weekend at home…quietly…just the two of them, sometimes
talking, sometimes just sitting together, and always thinking about the horror…the
sadness of it all. When they lay in bed together Charis held Ben as one would
an unhappy child, just to give him comfort until he finally slept. It wasn't
until Sunday night, after they had changed and were ready for bed, that he came
to her, took her in his arms and said, “I don't know what I would’ve done
without you, Charis. Thank you for being so understanding. You’ve been balm to
my wounded soul.”

“Oh, Ben,” she said. “As you have to me, so many times.”

He bent his head to hers and kissed her, slipped her nightdress from
her shoulders and watched it fall to the floor. He took her to bed. Her Ben was
back.

It had helped Ben to be totally open about his feelings with Charis,
so that by the time Monday rolled around and he had to go to work again, he was
calm enough and in control of himself again.  She was glad that she could help
in some small way. He’d been right though. She would much preferred not to have
known about it…if only it had been another doctor. But Ben cared and had cared
enough to stay until the end, and she loved him for his caring. And after all,
marriage was about sharing the bad times and the sad times as well as the good.

*****

Jennifer was due to arrive later that day. She was to be Amelia's
bridesmaid next month and had to come to London for a fitting for her dress. She’d
taken a couple of days off work – she worked as a legal secretary for a law
firm in Winchester – and would be staying with Ben and Charis. She arrived soon
after Charis returned from her mornings’ work in Sam's bookshop. They spent a
couple of hours together, talking about the wedding and the family, and
chatting as only long standing friends do, before Charis started preparing
dinner for when Ben came home.

They were still all sitting chatting quietly around the table after
finishing their meal when there was a knock at the door. Charis, sitting closest,
went to answer it. Standing on the other side of the door was a good looking
young man; quite tall, with fair hair and blue eyes. He was smartly dressed in
a suit, white shirt and tie.

He smiled at her. “Mrs. Sinclair?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“I'm sorry to disturb you.” He pulled his warrant card from his
pocket to show her. “I'm Detective Sergeant David Bryant from the Metropolitan
Police. I wonder if I might have a word with your husband, Doctor Sinclair.”

“Of course,” she said. “Please, come in,” and stood aside to let him
enter.

“Thank you,” he said and gave her a charming smile.

Ben got up from the table and extended his hand to the detective –
they shook hands, liking each other on sight. “I'm Ben Sinclair and this is my
wife, Charis. What can I do for you?” he asked.