Life Less Lived Ch. 03

Marina smiled, "That sounds great, after getting so cold, I'm really feeling quite sleepy here in the warm." Just then, her tummy rumbled loudly again to betray that she hadn't eaten a thing all day, and both women giggled.

"OK, it looks like I can't deny that I am hungry as well!"

Sophie moved to the doorway, "I'll leave some spare bedclothes on the bedroom radiator to warm up, if you pass out your wet things I can put them in the machine and have them nice and dry by the morning."

"Oh, that's not necessary," said Marina, "I have a change of clothing in my bag." She opened her bag, but found both the bottom of hessian bag and the clothes inside were soaking wet. "Oh dear," she added.

Sophie took the clothes, saying "I can throw all those in with the rest, no problem." Marina took off her wet clothes, handed them out to Sophie and climbed into the steaming hot bath and turned off the taps. It felt really good relaxing, allowing the warmth of the aromatic bath to seep into her aching body.

"Don't get too wrinkly in there, or you'll be late for supper," called Sophie from the bedroom.

"Too late to worry about wrinkles, now, dear," grinned Marina, opening one of her relaxed eyes, "I'll only be five minutes."

"There's a thick dressing gown which I will also leave warming on the radiator in the bedroom, it used to be my sister's. Do come down when you are ready, there'll be a hot drink and food ready."

When Marina emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, warm and smelling very fragrant, she donned the soft pyjamas and comfortable dressing gown left warming on the radiator and also pulled on some thick woollen socks that Sophie had thoughtfully left on the bed for her. She checked herself in the mirror, her face glowing healthily pink, before descending the stairs at the end of the corridor, following the sounds of conversation to the kitchen.

Daniel was sitting at the table watching the news channel on the wall-mounted TV, describing the country-wide chaos caused by the unseasonal snow, while Sophie was stirring a large saucepan at the cooking range.

"Hello, again," greeted Sophie, "You look so much better with some colour in your cheeks!"

"I think that's just embarrassment, Sophie, I don't know how I could've been so silly to have been stranded in such weather."

"You are not the only one caught out," chipped in Daniel, pointing at the screen, "The whole south of England is at a standstill."

Marina glanced at the TV, showing a stretch of motorway from a bridge, with a scene of stationary stranded cars as far as the eye could see, and a blue-light-flashing police car ineffectively trying to force its way through. She shook her head. It looked complete chaos out there.

"If I had known it was going to be like this, I'd never have set out..."

"No-one was expecting this," Sophie touched her arm, "You are safe and warm now," she said with a warm smile. Marina noticed she had her father's deep blue eyes, her cheeks attractively covered in freckles.

"I don't know how to thank you ... both."

"We'll eat the food off our laps in the parlour, there's a good fire going in there and it's the warmest room in the house." Sophie turned to her father, who had joined them in front of the warm range, and kissed him lightly on the lips again and continued, "Daddy, will you take Miss Shaw through while I serve up and bring in the food?"

Daniel took Marina gently by the arm and guided her towards the door, past the stairs, and into a corridor which led deeper into the house. The hallway gave access to a number of rooms, Medcalf opened the second and last door to the left and waved Marina through. It was a small, cosy parlour with a couple of comfortable armchairs and a sofa arranged around a roaring fire, banked high with crackling fire-licked logs.

Medcalf handed her onto the sofa, sat her down and pulled a warm thick wool blanket out of one of the chests by the side of the fireplace and spread it over Marina's lap. Then Daniel sat on the armchair and leaned over to lift up the ornate brass fireguard and stoked the fire using an antique poker, sending a showering stream of crackling sparks up the chimney. A couple of minutes later Sophie came into the room bearing a couple of plates of steaming meat and tomato sauce with rice on a tray, handing one plate to her father and placing the tray with the other plate on Marina's lap.

"I hope it's all right," she said to Marina, biting her bottom lip unconsciously. "I had to pad out the sauce with extra veg once I heard we had a guest." She looked pointedly at her father with her left eyebrow lifted quizzically. Daniel lifted his arms to imply, What else could I do?

"It smells and looks delicious," said Marina, gathering her utensils from the tray. "I was down to my last four squares of chocolate, so this is quite a feast," she smiled.

Sophie returned her smile and left the room briefly, returning a couple of minutes later with her own meal on another tray plus mugs of coffee, a jug of milk and a bowl of sugar. She set one mug in front of Marina and offered her milk and sugar, pouring and dispensing as directed then passed the jug of milk to her father.

Marina Shaw was finally introduced by her full name to Sophie, who then realised where she had heard the name of Marina before and exploded, "Mason and Marina! Of course! So, they actually exist!"

Marina turned to Daniel, puzzled, "Who does she mean, 'Mason and Marina'?"

Daniel smiled bemusedly, "This is a little embarrassing, actually. Mason and Marina were two paragons of virtue that my wife and I confronted each other with whenever we were having ... well, not an argument, more a difference of opinion over some matter. You know, if I was out at meetings and had not informed my wife when I'd be back for mealtimes or if I forgot to pick up the dry cleaning, or let the grass grow too long on the front lawn, then Penny used to throw at me the line that 'Mason would do this or that' and I would do the same with my own made-up version of someone called 'Marina'."

He paused. "This 'Marina' wasn't exactly you, Marina, but a composite of a number of girls I had known, but the image I always had was your face and smile, and 'she' always had your sweetness of personality and your dependable practicality. As for 'Mason', like the girls, I always thought that he was also a made up person. I may be wrong but by the same token he could actually exist out there somewhere. 'Mason' was someone that my wife held up as the perfect man."

By inference, Marina thought, does this mean that Daniel thought that she was the perfect woman? What would he think of her if she realised that only an hour or so ago she was still contemplating murdering this man by stabbing him in cold blood? Blood couldn't get any colder after waiting 33 years!

While Marina and Daniel were conversing, Sophie was frantically texting on her mobile phone and kept uttering "Oh my God!" over and over. She finished sending and looked up at Marina and Daniel, a huge knowing smile on her lovely youthful face. By now it was very late, way past midnight.

"So," Sophie said, unaware of the whole of the conversation that her father and Marina had already held regarding Mason, "if you are Marina, then somewhere out there ... there must be a Mason! Oh my God!" Suddenly, her phone kicked off with an instrumental theme of one of the latest chart toppers. Sophie answered immediately.

"Ginny!" she exclaimed. "I wasn't sure if you were still up or on duty ... Yes, really ... Absolutely ... Marina exists and she is twice as beautiful and charming as I ever imagined and she is sitting here in front of me next to Daddy. ... Yes, you can." She held the phone out to Marina. "It's my sister, Ginny, she wants to have a word with you."

Marina took the handset with some trepidation and slowly put it to her ear.

"Hello?" she enquired quietly.

"Oh my God!" exploded the disembodied voice of Virginia Medcalf at the other end of the airwave. "Are you really the Marina that Daddy fell in love with before he married my Mum?" asked the excited voice.

"Well, I certainly knew your father briefly before he was married, but whether I am 'The Marina' that you refer to, I'm not so sure. He tells me that she was a composite of a number of different girls. I certainly couldn't possibly have been the 'Marina' you think he knew before falling in love with your mother." Marina offered.

"Well," came back the reply "Your voice sounds warm and nice and Soph is very impressed with you already, so you must be the same Marina. How amazing that you have turned up with Daddy after all this time?"

"It has been a long time," admitted Marina, "More than thirty years since I've seen him and I hadn't intended renewing our friendship tonight, to be honest. I was hoping just to sneak in and have a peep at him and get clean away, but I was spotted -"

"- No! Did he recognise you straight away?"

"Huh huh! I actually think he did. Even then I felt embarrassed about being there and tried to bluff my way out of the situation, by pretending he was a complete stranger. I thought I had succeeded. But your father did recognise me, although when I ignored him he was a little shaken by my response and that allowed some doubt to creep in. I was ashamed to admit who I was in case he thought I was some kind of creepy stalker."

"Men, they are so dense sometimes, honestly. So eventually Daddy invited you back to our home?"

"Not exactly. My coming here tonight was really an act of mercy by your father when I was stranded in the snow after missing the last train, Miss Medcalf."

"Yes, Daddy was always picking us up after we missed the last train or bus in the past," said the voice, "I'm Virginia, by the way, Marina, but everyone calls me Ginny -"

"Nice to make your acquaintance, Ginny, actually I think I'm sleeping in your old bed tonight."

"Hope you'll be comfy, Marina, Soph and I were always perfectly happy in that room together. So much so that we never pressed ... Mum and Dad to have our own separate rooms. What are your plans for Christmas? I know this is a frightful cheek, but I'm dying to meet you at long last and I'd love it if you could come to us with Dad and Soph on Christmas Eve."

"Well," said Marina, "I had planned on staying over Christmas with my sister in North London and was due to go up there sometime on Christmas Eve. I think it now all depends on the state of the weather. I need to get back home first and pick up all my presents for my sister's family."

"Well we live in Paddington in North London. Daddy and Soph are coming up during the early afternoon on Christmas Eve, it would be marvellous if you could come up with them," requested Ginny. "I'm actually working from 6pm until 6am on Christmas Eve and my other half Giles is on call from 6pm until noon on Christmas Day, but it would be my greatest wish to finally meet you. I'm sure we can rope Daddy in to drive you to your sister's that evening or at least to a convenient tube station. Say you can come and see us, please, Marina, please?"

Marina chuckled at her enthusiasm, "I will have to speak to my niece and sister about arrangements, but I have to go see them over Christmas sometime. Providing I can still do that, I would love to meet you and your partner, if your father is willing and in a position to bring me up on Christmas Eve, that is." Marina looked up at that point and Daniel nodded his head in assent with a huge grin, having no doubt followed at least Marina's part of the conversation. Sophie was also grinning madly.

"If your plans are fluid," continued Ginny on the end of the line, "Then you could come back from your sister's and stay with us overnight on Christmas Eve. I am at the hospital all night, but you could bunk in with Soph in the main bedroom, while Daddy can use the single spare bedroom, and I will push Giles into sleeping on the sofa. That way he won't disturb anyone if the hospital need him. Daddy is cooking the turkey and veggies for our midday meal on Christmas Day. I will have to get my head down for a few hours' sleep when I get in and the chances are that at some point Giles will have been called in for an emergency or two. Then, after lunch, we are upping sticks to go back to Sussex late afternoon or early evening where we are staying for a well-earned three days' off. If you can fit us into your plans, Soph and I would love to spend some relaxing time with you and get to know you properly and replace the 'Marina Legend' with the real thing."

Marina was overwhelmed with her warm reception and could hardly do anything except acquiesce, handing the phone back to Sophie, who, after a quick word, passed the device on to her father to wish his eldest daughter a good night.

Both Medcalfs were full of information about how well Ginny and Giles were doing in their respective hospital careers, having recently qualified from Med School and described their little flat around the corner from the hospital and what fun they would have there enjoying Christmas Dinner before coming back home.

Marina was apparently included in all these future plans for the upcoming festive celebrations, which was somewhat of a trial to her. What contrast to how she set out for Sussex so much earlier that day, she was beginning to feel that this morning could have been sometime in the distant past! Once Marina had finished eating the meal and her hot coffee, she could barely keep her eyes open and the ever-watchful hostess Sophie put her to bed.

Marina didn't stir when Sophie came to bed later. She assumed it was shortly after her hosts had completed the washing up. It was after she had slept for two or three hours that something disturbed Marina's deep slumber. It was Sophie crying in her bed, clearly trying to suppress her sobs as quietly as she could manage, as if she was trying to avoid disturbing their guest. Marina climbed into Sophie's bed with her and held the girl to comfort her until they both fell asleep. There were no words exchanged, just basic human comforting between two people, one needing care and the other prepared to give as she always had.

To be continued