Restoration in the River

I've Seen Your Face

After having decided what they wanted to eat. Julian went to call the butler, politely giving him their choices.

Emmaline, slipped her very warm coat and jacket off, as the suite was so warm and toasty, she was able to enjoy her hot chocolate in the nice floral top she was wearing.

"Julian, come sit" she patted the lounge she was sitting on "I have something I need to show you!"  

He came over moments later, still holding his hot chocolate. "I ordered some dessert for us too! Hope you like cheesecake!" 

"Cheesecake sounds divine, not Christmas pudding though?" She asked.

"That's for tomorrow! Now, what did you want to show me?" He sat close to her.

"Have a look" she showed him her wrist, where her hippo amulet sat snug on its leather band.

"It's like mine!" He gasped, placing his left wrist against hers, the two amulets now touching. "Did you get attacked by a hippo as well?"

His mind was going into overdrive 'she's the human form of Taweret, she is my Taweret!' He thought to himself. 'was she the one who came to me when I was first admitted, did SHE give me my bracelet?'

She smiled "no Julian, my best friend Tilly Almasi and her rich, Egyptian husband Zosar gave this to me a couple weeks after my fiftieth birthday, you see Taweret is an Egyptian deity in the..."

"form of a hippo," they said together.

"Yes, that's correct but she is also the goddess or deity of childbirth and fertility. Her image to the Ancient Egyptians, adorns objects, the most notable of which being a common type of "wand" or "knife" carved from hippopotamus ivory that was likely used in rituals associated with birth and the protection of infants, way back a couple thousand years ago. Now the reason I am telling you this is of course, very personal for me" She absentmindedly played with the amulet to calm herself.

He watched her closely, he did that too with his amulet.

"Is everything okay, Emmaline?" He asked, concerned as he gently laid his hand on her arm. Her skin was soft and subtle, well looked after for a middle-aged woman.

She had never opened up to someone she had known for so little time, but looking into Julian's concerned but beautiful eyes, she felt it was right.

"I feel I have a connection to Taweret because she let me and my Mother down, Julian" she began, finding herself reaching for his hand. He let her take it. The last thing he would do is rip it from her,  like a cold heartless prick. He could tell she was hurting, did she have something from her past bottled up? "My Mother and Father were Aussie, like me. My Father, a heart surgeon, my Mother a nurse"

"Oh, so it runs in the family, the medical profession?" He asked with a smile.

"Yes, it certainly does" she found herself smiling with him. "Anyway, they met in 1965, Dr Robert Hatchford was the leading heart surgeon in all of Queensland and I dare say Australia, He was positioned at the St. Helen's Private Hospital, in South Brisbane and moved to The Wesley in Auchenflower, that's in Brisbane in 1977 when it opened. I also work at The Wesley. He met my Mother just before a major quadruple bypass of a young woman, there was a shortage of staff, she got roped into his operating theatre, he was a real 'grumpy prick' to her, blaming it on the stress of the looming operation. She took it until the operation was over and I was told by my Father that she absolutely let him have it. But she stayed so professional while he was operating."    

He was enthralled by her story, he could listen to her all day. 

"So what happened?" He asked. "Did she refuse to talk to him from then on?"