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Celine opened the bedroom door and went quietly into the room and Mrs Seymour looked up from where she was sitting by the bed. The delight and relief on her face as her nephew crossed the room towards her was obvious.
‘Oliver—oh, now everything will be all right! He’s been asking for you. Dr Grady is coming later this afternoon, you will be able to talk to him.’ She smiled at Celine, standing quietly by the door. ‘I don’t know what we would have done if it hadn’t been for this dear child.’
‘There’s a nurse?’
‘Yes, she’s out walking.’ Mrs Seymour pulled a face. ‘Very serious and severe and rather a trial to the household, I should imagine.’ She smiled from a pale face. ‘Perhaps you could use some of your charm?’
‘It doesn’t always work,’ he observed, and glanced at Celine as he spoke.
She ignored the look. ‘I’ll bring you a tray of tea up here,’ she offered, and whisked away, down the stairs, for some reason feeling peevish.
She later took tea, tiny sandwiches and the fruit cake Angela had just baked, upstairs and arranged the tray on a table near the window before going to find her mother and father in the study. They looked up as she went in and her mother said: ‘I heard a car, darling—but we can’t take anyone, I suppose?’
‘It’s the nephew, Oliver Seymour. He wants to spend the night, I’ll get the small room across the landing ready for him. I’d better go to the kitchen and tell Angela there’ll be one more for dinner this evening.’
Mrs Baylis’s eyes brightened. ‘Really, darling, one wouldn’t want to be unkind, but we’re making money, aren’t we?’
‘On paper, yes. I don’t suppose Mrs Seymour will think of the bill at the moment.’
‘No, of course not, but Nicky might. Are we getting low in ready cash?’
‘We’re OK for a bit, darling. Would you make one of your salads for dinner this evening? I’ll get a couple of lettuces and some radishes, and there’ll be a few spring onions…I’ll get some apples from the loft, too.’
The Colonel looked up from his book. ‘What are we eating tonight?’
‘Lamb chops, and I’ll make a syllabub.’
‘You look very untidy,’ observed her father, but she didn’t have to answer him, for he was once more deep in his book.
Her mother cast an eye over her. ‘Yes, love, you do. I’ll see about tea and you go and change.’ She added: ‘Is he nice?’
‘OK, but I’ll get the radishes first. I’ve no idea, I hardly spoke to him.’
Celine went out of the side door into the kitchen garden, her trug on her arm, and filled it with things for the salad; she was grubbing up the last of the radishes when slow firm feet trod the path behind her.
‘Very soothing,’ declared the deep lazy voice, ‘gently pottering in the garden—good for the nerves too. Why isn’t Nick helping you?’
Celine straightened her back. ‘I didn’t ask him to,’ she said politely.
‘Did he need, to be asked?’ His voice held a friendly mockery that annoyed here.
‘He is on holiday,’ she pointed out sharply.
He didn’t answer that but went on placidly: ‘You must have been put to a great deal of trouble with my uncle ill in the house, as well as losing—er—custom. I’m sure my aunt hasn’t remembered to pay the bill—will you let me have it and we’ll settle up?’
Celine arranged the radishes in a neat row, not looking at him. ‘You’re leaving—all of you? I didn’t think Mr Seymour…’
‘Don’t be silly,’ he sounded avuncular, ‘of course we aren’t leaving, but we’re preventing you from having a house full, and the least we can do is pay our way.’ He took a radish from the trug and ate it. ‘Do you do the accounts as well?’
‘No, my father sees to that.’ She started back towards the house. ‘I’ve one or two jobs to do…’
He let her go without protest. ‘Of course. Do you mind if I look round the garden until Dr Grady gets here?’
‘Of course not.’
Celine had to admit, as she helped Angela in the kitchen and then went to lay the table, that he was considerate and kind. But Nick didn’t like him; she wondered why. And where was Nicky anyway? They had hardly seen each other all day. As if in answer to her thought he came into the dining-room and threw an arm round her shoulders. ‘Beautiful girl, isn’t it about time you spared a thought for me? I might have known that once Oliver got here he’d spoil everything.’
She set the knives and forks just so, very conscious of his arm. ‘I’ve been around,’ she said, a shade breathless, ‘and your cousin hasn’t spoilt anything. Why should he? Your mother was very glad to see him—because he’s a doctor, I expect.’
She didn’t see Nick’s quick frown. ‘Oh, I daresay. Hey, drop that lot of plates and come into the garden for a few minutes.’
She laughed, feeling suddenly happy. ‘I can’t—look, dinner’s in an hour, and I’ve heaps to do and I’ll have to go and change.’
‘Never mind that.’ Nicky took the plates from her, then tucked an arm through hers and walked her through the French window out into the garden.
‘It’s heavenly now.’ He smiled down at her, holding her close. ‘I had no idea when I came on holiday that I was going to meet the only girl in the world.’
Celine didn’t answer him, and he didn’t seem to expect it, but strolled round the side of the house towards the high wall of the kitchen garden, still warm from the afternoon’s sun. They were well away from the house when he stopped and put his arms round her. ‘You’re everything a man wants,’ he told her. ‘You and I are going to be very happy.’
Celine stirred in his arms. She felt shy and excited, but over and above these she felt as though she were being rushed along too fast. Nicky was going to kiss her and she wasn’t quite sure that she wanted him to, not just yet. All the same, she felt a keen exasperation when the old wooden door into the kitchen garden creaked open and Oliver strolled through, not twenty yards away.
He closed the door carefully behind him and beamed at them. ‘Hullo there, enjoying a little peace and quiet together?’ and instead of going off to the house, he strolled towards them. Without quite knowing how it had happened, Celine found his vast person between them, a hand on their shoulders, propelling them gently forward while he carried on a gentle conversation. She answered mechanically, but Nicky didn’t say a word—not then, at any rate, but when she left them in the hall, she heard him break into furious speech before she had closed the kitchen door.
Nurse Stevens came back presently, was served her dinner and went away to the sickroom, and Celine cleared away, put the finishing touches to the tables and went back to the kitchen. It wasn’t quite time for dinner and everything was ready. She slid upstairs, showered, changed into a little Italian dress she had bought the previous summer, did her hair and face with the speed of light and was downstairs again with five minutes to spare. She could hear Mrs Seymour, Nick and his cousin in the smaller sitting-room; her mother and father were there too and there was no reason why she shouldn’t join them. Instead she went to the kitchen again, picked up the tray with the avocado pears with shrimp sauce and took them along to the dining-room, where she met Barney, dealing with the wine. In the twilight, just with candles glowing, the shabby room looked rather lovely, and Barney, very neat in his black alpaca jacket, certainly added tone to the place. Celine wondered if they were charging enough for dinner as she crossed the hall and banged the gong.
There was no getting away from the fact that Oliver was now very much in charge of the party. Nick hadn’t bothered over-much about his mother’s lack of appetite, but his cousin, with a placid firmness which would have been hard to resist, made sure that she ate at least something of the meal. And he saw that her glass was kept filled too. Mrs Seymour had brightened visibly by the end of the meal, although it was only too apparent that Nick was sulking.
The poor boy, thought Celine, handing the salad from the garden to go with the lamb chops, the wretched man has taken over completely. Pompous ass, she added to herself for good measure.
She carried the coffee into the drawing-room when they had finished their meal and Mrs Seymour patted the sofa beside her and said: ‘Do sit down, my dear—you lead such a busy life, surely you can rest for a few minutes.’
‘I’m not tired,’ declared Celine, and meant it. She sat down, with a quick look at the clock; five minutes, ten at the most. She caught Oliver’s eye and coloured faintly; he saw so obviously exactly what she had been thinking. Indeed, she waited for him to make some remark, but he didn’t, just sat there, listening to Mrs Seymour talking about her husband’s illness. ‘Of course, everything is all right now Oliver’s here,’ she said quite happily. ‘He’s such a splendid doctor, and he and Dr Grady quite agree as to the treatment. And they say he’s responding to—to…’ She looked at her nephew, who said calmly, ‘Stimuli—pins and lights and so forth.’
Mrs Seymour nodded in agreement. ‘Yes, that’s it. I was telling your mother, Celine, that just as soon as it’s safe to move my husband, we’ll do so. I feel very badly about you turning away other guests.’
Celine said cheerfully: ‘Oh, it’s not quite the tourist season yet, you know, we didn’t expect to be full for another few weeks.’ She paused in thought. ‘And now Oliver’s here too, we might be able to have one or two drives round the country.’
‘Now he’s here,’ said Nick suddenly, ‘I’m going to take some time off myself—it’s not been much of a holiday so far.’
His mother looked at him doubtfully. She doted on him, but even she must have realised that he had contributed very little to ease a difficult situation, but his cousin answered readily enough. ‘Why not? I’m at everyone’s service.’
‘Well, I hope this lovely weather holds for you,’ said Celine, and got up. Oliver got up too and went to open the door for her. She thanked him coolly, not looking at him. He hadn’t said anything at all, but somehow he had made poor Nick look—well, uncaring. And he wasn’t that, after all, he had come on this holiday with his parents when he might have gone off somewhere exciting on his own. She was so very glad that he hadn’t.
She ate her own dinner in a rosy haze of vague dreams, so that her mother had to tell her twice that Dr Seymour had paid the bill and had had a chat with her father too. ‘Such a nice man,’ said Mrs Baylis with the faintest of question marks in her voice, ‘don’t you think so, dear?’
Celine muttered something, and her father, who hadn’t been listening said: ‘He’s an Oxford man, I thought he might be. Took his degrees at Edinburgh, been to Vienna too—quite a good man, I should suppose. A different kettle of fish from that cousin of his.’
‘Nick is a very nice person,’ said Celine quite fiercely for her, and got up to change the plates and so missed the warning glance her mother shot across the table at her father. When she sat down again her mother said: ‘Now we’ve got some money I wondered if you’d take the car tomorrow and go down to Dorchester market. I’ll tidy the rooms and make the beds if you could manage to clear the tables after breakfast—you could be back for lunch. If we had something cold—I’ll make a salad…’
It would be nice to have an hour or two away from the house, although she would be away from Nicky too…’Shall we make a list before we go to bed? Dr Seymour seems to think his uncle may be fit to move by ambulance in a week, perhaps less and we want to be ready for the next lot.’
‘Where do they live?’ asked Celine, and tried not to sound eager. It was something Nick hadn’t told her and she hadn’t asked.
‘Oh, Harrow, or is it Highgate? I believe Dr Seymour lives in London too, but I’m not sure where.’
He could live on the top of Mount Everest for all Celine cared. She didn’t like him, she told herself as she helped Angela clear away for the night, and at the same time was aware that this wasn’t quite true. He had done nothing deliberately unkind, he hadn’t been boastful, he had been friendly and polite, and if it hadn’t been for Nicky telling her what a tiresome man he was, she might even have liked him. She finished in the kitchen, said goodnight to Angela and Barney and crossed the hall to the sitting-room to say goodnight to her parents. Nicky came out of the drawing-room at the same time, and they met halfway, and stopped.
He put an arm round her and smiled so that her heart turned over.
‘I was hoping I’d see you. Any chance of coming for a drive tomorrow?’
‘I’m going to Dorchester market directly after breakfast, and I have to be back for lunch.’ Her soft mouth curved into a smile.
‘Heaven sent! I’ll drive you in my car. We can’t make it the whole day, I suppose?’
Celine shook her head. ‘Impossible—it really is. But it would be lovely.’ Her eyes shone and he put the other arm round her.
‘You beautiful girl,’ he said softly, and then stiffened and let his arms drop as someone, not too far away, started whistling. It could only be Oliver. It was, sauntering down the stairs with his hands in his pockets. He nodded casually at them as he crossed the hall and went out into the garden, but the magic moment had passed. Celine said in a brittle voice: ‘I shall be leaving about nine o’clock.’
‘I’ll be waiting.’ Nicky took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, but that was all. Any moment Oliver might appear again—like the genie in a pantomime, she thought peevishly.
She was up very early and had breakfasted long before anyone came into the dining-room. She served the meal, saw to Nurse Stevens’ wants, cleared the table, fetched her shopping list and was on the doorstep by nine o’clock. Nicky was there waiting in the car, and there was, thank heaven, no sign of his cousin. Celine got in beside him with a thrill of excitement, a little dampened by his careless: ‘We don’t need to shop, do we? Can’t you ring up for whatever you need when we get back? It’s such a glorious day, we could go for a run—have a picnic…’
‘Oh, but I can’t, honestly. Angela wants most of the things today—the village shop doesn’t have a great deal, you know. Besides, I must be back before lunch—there’s no one else to serve it.’
‘What about that butler of yours? Or your mother?’ Nicky spoke carelessly.
‘Barney’s got heaps of jobs to do—not just being a butler—he’s the handyman too and he does the vegetables and does quite a lot of housework when no one is about. And mother wouldn’t know where to start.’ She added, suddenly fierce: ‘Why should she? She’s never been used to it, and it was my idea in the first place.’
He patted her knee. ‘OK., don’t get so worked up! It was only a suggestion. But remember, when you do get a few hours to yourself keep them for me.’
He was an amusing companion, and it was impossible to be vexed by him for more than a few moments. The drive to Dorchester was a delight for her, and when they had parked the car, he took her to Napper’s Mite for coffee, and they walked through the crowded market while Celine bought fruit and meat, and, that done, led him into the town to Parson’s grocer’s shop to buy the special tea and coffee that her mother had had for years. It all took rather longer than she had bargained for, and she mentioned this as they got back into the car, to be made sorry for doing so presently, for Nick drove back much too fast, so that by the time they arrived she was on edge with suppressed nerves. All the same, she thanked him with warmth, refused with regret his offer of another drive that afternoon, and went off to the kitchen to give Angela a hand with the lunch.
The doctor had been, Angela told her as they stood side by side at the vast kitchen table, Celine making a salad, Angela putting the finishing touches to the egg and mushroom flan she had taken from the oven. ‘Very pleased he was, too. That nice Dr Seymour was with him. Now there is a man for you, Miss Celine—I wouldn’t mind being ill if I had him to look after me.’
‘Oh, pooh,’ declared Celine, and tossed her lovely head. ‘He’s just the same as any other doctor.’
‘Now there you’re wrong,’ declared Angela. ‘But it’s no good telling you that now, is it?’
Celine muttered under her breath; Angela had known her all her life and sometimes forgot that she wasn’t a little girl any more. ‘I’m going to sound the gong,’ she told her companion, and marched into the hall.
Mrs Seymour and Nicky were halfway through their meal before Dr Seymour joined them. Beyond a brief apology to both them and Celine, he gave no reason for his tardiness. She put a plate of chilled watercress soup before him with exaggerated care and served his companions with early strawberries and cream. In the kitchen she said snappily to Angela: ‘Serve that man right if I dished up his omelette now—it’d be nice and leathery by the time he’s ready for it.’
‘Miss Celine, I’m surprised at you—whatever next! Such a nice man, and so considerate too.’
Celine tossed her head and snorted delicately. ‘Stuff and nonsense,’ she said crossly.
She stayed cross for the rest of the day, for she had no time to herself at all. Several times on her way to the kitchen garden, or racing round the house, she had glimpses of Nicky stretched out on the lawn in front of the house, but there was no chance to talk to him. She served tea on the grass under the trees and took a tray up to Nurse Stevens, then went to join her parents in the sitting-room for half an hour.
Her father glanced up as she went in. ‘Busy?’ he asked without really wanting to know. ‘I hear from Dr Seymour that Mr Seymour may be leaving us in a day or two.’ He smiled at her vaguely, one finger marking the place in the book he was reading. ‘Has any one else arrived?’
‘I hope not,’ said Celine, wolfing bread and butter, ‘I’ve got my hands full.’
Her mother gave her a gently reproachful glance. ‘But, darling, you persuaded us to do this bed and breakfast thing—are you bored with it?’
‘I haven’t had time, Mother dear. I’ll be much easier when we just get people for a night or so…I mean, there’s Mr Seymour and the nurse…it makes it a bit busier.’
‘Yes, darling, I’m sure it does. All those extra rooms I have to put flowers in. But the money is most useful.’
Her father lowered his book. ‘I must say Dr Seymour is a very fair-minded man—insists on paying the full amount for his uncle even though he is only on a fluid diet and costs us almost nothing to feed.’
For some reason Celine felt annoyed. She felt despondent too; if Mr Seymour went, Nicky would go too and she wouldn’t see him again. She finished her tea and took the tray back to the kitchen, and while Angela and Barney had a couple of hours off, got started on the evening’s menu.
It was much later, when she was wearily clearing the last of the dishes away and tidying the kitchen for the night, that Nicky joined her.
‘So this is where you hide out,’ he said, and laughed as he tucked an arm in hers. ‘No, put those plates down, I haven’t talked to you for hours.’
‘This morning…’ she laughed up at him from a tired face. ‘And I’m not on holiday!’
He bent and kissed her lightly on the cheek. ‘Ah—and that’s what we must put right. I have to go to Bournemouth in a couple of weeks’ time—only for a few days, but we could have a couple of nights out—surely you can take a day or so off when you want to?’
Celine was puzzled. ‘Well, I suppose so, but it would be awkward, Nicky—I mean, there’s no one to take over—I’m not indispensable, but I am a pair of hands. And—and…where would I stay?’
‘Oh, at the hotel, of course,’ he said easily. ‘I always go to the Royal Bath.’ He added softly: ‘We have to get to know each other, my sweet.’
‘Why?’
He raised his brows and smiled slowly. ‘Don’t tell me you don’t feel entirely the same as I do about you. Love at first sight, you know.’
She was breathless. ‘Oh, yes, Nicky—I never thought it was true, but it is, isn’t it? Only I can’t…’ She paused. ‘Would you wait for a while, just while I get this business going, and when it’s running smoothly, I could get someone to take over…’
‘No need for a couple of days, surely?’
Celine felt her cheeks flame. ‘Oh, I thought you meant getting married.’
It sounded so gauche, the kind of remark the heroine might make in a second-rate film, but that was exactly what she had thought.
The arm around her shoulders tightened reassuringly. ‘My sweet, that is what I meant. Of course I’ll wait—but I do think we should see as much as we can of each other until you’re free.’
Celine drew a deep breath, and the small doubt lying somewhere at the bottom of her excitement disappeared. ‘I’ll see what I can do. When are you leaving?’
He shrugged. ‘Lord knows—or at least, my interfering cousin does; when he feels like it, I suppose he’ll tell us.’
‘Has he always been like that?’
‘Always. There’s not much love lost between us, but there’s no need for you to see him once he’s left here. He’s always wrapped up in his precious practice and some clinic or other he runs.’ He threw her a sidelong glance. ‘Dislikes girls, too—had some miserable affair when he was young and has no time for women, or so he says.’
‘Oh—he’s always been very polite…’
