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‘I’d rather go to Richmond,’ said Jimmy.
‘Why not? Would you like to take Mutt?’
He gave her a surprised look and she said calmly, ‘Well, he’s small enough to be carried if he gets tired, isn’t he? Perhaps Tibs ought to have a few minutes in the garden before we go. I’ll go and tell Buller—I don’t expect Goldie and Neptune will need to go out again until we get back.’
The afternoon was a success; they sat overlooking the river, admired the Thames and the country beyond, and found a tea-room before getting a bus back. It had been an expensive outing, reflected Araminta, sitting on her bed counting the change in her purse, but worth every penny. Any minute now the professor would be home, and he would take the children and the dogs on the promised trip to Hampstead Heath…
When she went downstairs he was at home, sitting in his chair by the fire with his dogs at his feet. He got up as she went in, and she said quickly, ‘Oh, you’re home,’ and blushed because it had been a silly thing to say. ‘The children will be down in a few minutes; they’re tidying themselves for the evening.’
‘Sit down, Miss Smith. No difficulties?’
‘None, thank you, Professor.’
The children came then, and she sat quietly while they recounted their day to him. ‘But we’re still going out with you, aren’t we, Uncle?’ asked Gloria.
‘Of course. I’m glad you enjoyed yourselves. Go and get your coats; we’ll go now.’ When they had gone he said, ‘Let me know how much you paid out on my behalf, Miss Smith,’ and when she murmured vaguely, he said, ‘Now if you please.’
So she told him. ‘It’s rather a lot of money, but they did enjoy their tea.’
‘A small price to pay for their enjoyment. Have they seemed worried about their mother and father?’
‘They haven’t said anything to me, but I wouldn’t expect them to…’
The children came back then. ‘Isn’t Araminta coming with us?’ asked Gloria.
‘No—I believe Miss Smith may be glad of an hour or so to herself.’ He smiled kindly at her and she gave a grateful murmur. She wished that he would stop calling her Miss Smith, it highlighted her mousy dullness.
* * *
Day followed day, and Gloria and Jimmy showed no sign of liking her any better. True, they did what she asked them to do, fell in with her suggestions as to how to spend their days and treated her with politeness at any meal when their uncle was present. They had, for some reason, made up their minds not to like her, and in a way she could understand that; she was a stranger, wished on them at a moment’s notice and instantly to be forgotten the moment they returned home to their mother’s and Patty’s casual spoiling.
It was towards the end of the week when Professor Lister received a phone call from his sister. She had no idea when she would be coming home; her husband was still very ill and it was impossible for her to leave him. ‘I know how awkward it is for you to have the children,’ she told him. ‘Send them back in time for school—Patty should be back by now; she can look after them. That girl—what’s her name?—Araminta can take them back and hand them over.’
‘Don’t worry about them,’ he told her, ‘I’ll see that they get back home and settled in with Patty. I’m sorry Tom is still not fit, but stay as long as you need to—I’ll drive down whenever I can and keep an eye on the children.’
‘Bless you.’ Lydia Gault rang off and he put the phone down and went to sit in his armchair. He would have to make time to drive the children back on Saturday and Araminta Smith would have to go with them. He could bring her back that same day and she could return home…
He got up presently and went to tell the three of them, who were playing a rather rowdy game of Monopoly in the sitting-room.
His news was received with mixed feelings by the children. They were troubled that their father was still ill and their mother wouldn’t be coming home for a time; on the other hand they were pleased at the idea of going home again and returning to school and the loving care of Patty, who let them do exactly what they wanted. The professor watched their faces with a wry smile before he turned to Araminta.
‘You will be kind enough to return with the children?’ The question was a statement, politely put. ‘I will drive you back in the evening.’
She agreed; she had telephoned Alice during the week and told her that she would be back at the weekend, listening patiently to the flood of complaints before putting the receiver down.
‘I’ll phone Patty,’ said the professor. ‘She’s probably back by now—if not, I’ll phone her at home.’
An urgent call from the hospital prevented him from doing that; it was only after his ward round that he remembered to do it. He pushed aside the notes he was writing in Theatre Sister’s office and picked up the phone. There was no reply from his sister’s home, but he had Patty’s home number with him. He phoned that, waiting patiently while it rang.
Patty’s soft Scottish voice said, ‘Hello?’
He said at once, ‘Patty? Jason Lister here. I don’t suppose you’ve heard from Mrs Gault. She won’t be able to return at present—Mr Gault isn’t so well. I’ll bring the children back on Saturday—so could you come back as soon as you can and open up the house? I know it’s short notice, but perhaps you could take the night sleeper or fly back to Bristol or Exeter. Take a car, and don’t spare the expense. I’ll see to that——’
‘Professor Lister, I can’t—my mother’s desperately ill. I cannot leave her—you must understand that—I was going to phone Mrs Gault when she got back. What is to be done?’
‘Don’t worry, Patty, we’ll brush through. The young lady who has been looking after Jimmy and Gloria is still with us. I’ll get her to go back with them and stay until either you or Mrs Gault get back. You stay and look after your mother.’
‘You’re sure, sir? I’ll come the moment I can.’
‘Stay as long as you need to,’ he told her, ‘and let me know how you get on.’ He hung up; it was providential that Araminta Smith was still with them. He would see her as soon as he got home.
Which was late that evening. The children were in bed and Araminta was sitting uneasily in the drawing-room when he got back. She didn’t much like sitting there on her own but Buller had told her that the professor wanted her to make use of the room whenever she wished. One more day, she was thinking, then back home to a disgruntled Alice and the careless affection of her father, eager to know how much she had earned. The money had been hard-earned too; true, she had lived in the lap of luxury in this lovely house, but not for one moment had the children shown her any sign of friendliness.
As for Professor Lister, he treated her with an impersonal politeness which held no more warmth than when they had first met.
She got to her feet as he came in, the dogs at his heels. Her ‘Good evening, Professor Lister,’ was quietly said. ‘I was just going to bed. You must be tired…’
‘Yes, but please don’t go for a moment. I have something to say to you.’
She sat down again and he sat in his chair opposite to her. She looked at his tired face. ‘You should go to your bed,’ she told him in her matter-of-fact way, ‘but perhaps you are hungry too. Shall I go and see if Mrs Buller could warm up some soup?’
‘I believe Buller has the matter in hand, but it is kind of you to bother. Perhaps you will have a drink with me first?’
He got up and poured her a glass of sherry and gave himself some whisky. ‘We have a problem,’ he told her, ‘and I must rely on you to solve it.’
She listened without interruption, and when he had finished she said simply, ‘How very unfortunate. Of course I will do as you ask, only I must go home and get some clothes—I only brought enough for a week with me.’
‘Certainly. I’ll drive you home tomorrow—I should be home round about four o’clock. That will give you time to pack whatever you need to take there and decide what you wish to take with you. I have no idea how long you may need to stay, but I would suggest that you think in terms of two weeks.’ He saw the doubt in her face. ‘That presents difficulties? Your family?’
‘My sister isn’t very used to running the house.’
‘She is alone?’
‘No. No—but my father is away all day.’ She would have stopped there but the faint enquiry in his face forced her to go on. ‘She’s delicate.’
He said kindly, ‘Well, suppose we go to your home and see what she says; if necessary I could arrange for her to have some help. May I ask in what way your sister is delicate?’
‘Well, the doctor told her she would have to take things easy.’
‘This was recent, this advice?’
Araminta wrinkled her forehead in thought. ‘Well, no—about two years ago.’
‘Has she been taking things easy since then? Does she see her doctor regularly?’
‘Not since then.’ Araminta glanced at him as she said it, and surprised a look on his face; she wasn’t sure what the look was because it had gone at once. She must have imagined it.
The children were upset, looking at her as though it were all her fault. She was thankful when the professor came home the next afternoon, his calm, logical acceptance of the situation allowing them to take a more cheerful view of it.
‘I’ll phone each evening,’ he promised them, ‘and if I can manage it I’ll come down at the weekend, and as soon as I have any news I’ll let you know. I know you both want to help your mother and father, and the best way of doing that is to give them no cause to worry about you. Will you get your things packed up while I take Miss Smith to her home to get what she needs? We’ll go after breakfast tomorrow—that will give us time to do any shopping and air the house. When your mother and father are back home, I promise we’ll all have a marvellous celebration.’
He had nothing to say as he drove Araminta home; he wasn’t a talkative man and his well-ordered life had been turned upside-down and, even though the three of them would be gone, he would still need to keep an eye on them from a distance, and that over and above his own busy life.
The contrast between his handsome house and her own home was cruel, but she didn’t allow it to bother her. He stopped before its front door and she prepared to get out. She stopped halfway. ‘I shall be about half an hour,’ she told him. ‘Would you like to come in, or perhaps you would rather come back?’
His mouth twitched. ‘I’ll come in, if I may.’ It would be interesting to see how this unassuming girl, who had fitted into the quiet luxury of his home with unself-conscious naturalness, behaved in her own house. Besides, he had a wish to meet the delicate sister. As plain as her sister? he wondered.
Araminta put her key in the lock and opened the door, and stood aside to allow him to pass her into the narrow hall. It was a bit of a squeeze, for he was so very large, but she said nothing, only called softly, ‘Alice? Alice, I’m back…’
Alice’s voice came from the kitchen. ‘And about time too, I’m sick of all this beastly housework…’ Her voice got louder as she opened the door wider and came through, and then changed miraculously as she saw Professor Lister. ‘Oh, we weren’t expecting you…’ Her cross face became wreathed in smiles.
‘This is Professor Lister, Alice. My sister, Professor. Alice, I shall be away for another week or ten days. I’ve come to collect some more clothes. I’ve brought my case with me…’
The professor had shaken hands and smiled but not spoken; now he said, ‘Ah, yes, I’ll fetch it in for you.’ And he went out to the car again.
Alice clutched Araminta’s arm. ‘Why didn’t you warn me? I’d have had my hair done and put on a decent dress. He’s quite something.’ She added peevishly, ‘The house is in a mess…’
‘I doubt if he notices,’ said Araminta prosaically. ‘He’s a bit absent-minded.’
Alice tossed her head. ‘I’ll make him notice me…’ She turned to smile at him as he came back into the house. ‘You run along, dear,’ she said sweetly to Araminta. ‘I daresay Professor Lister would like a cup of coffee.’
Araminta climbed the stairs to her room and set about the business of finding fresh clothes, stout shoes and an all-enveloping overall, since it seemed likely that she would be expected to do the housework as well as keep an eye on Jimmy and Gloria. That done, she took a pile of undies and blouses down to the kitchen, stuffed them into the washing-machine and switched it on. Alice wasn’t likely to iron them, but at least they would be clean when she got back. She could hear voices in the sitting-room, and Alice’s laugh, as she went back upstairs to collect her writing-case and choose a book to take with her. She thought that she might need soothing by bedtime each day, and ran her hand along the row of books by her bed. She chose Vanity Fair and Thackeray’s Ballads and Songs. She hesitated, her small, nicely kept hand hovering over Jane Eyre, but there wasn’t room for it in her case. She closed the case, carried it downstairs, and went into the sitting-room. The professor was sitting in one of the shabby armchairs by the fireplace and he got up as she went in. Alice was sitting on the old-fashioned sofa. She looked prettier than ever, thought Araminta without envy, but it was a pity that the room was so untidy, more than untidy, grubby. Why did Alice look so cross, anyway?
She looked quickly at the professor, but he looked as he always did, pleasant and at the same time unconcerned, as though his mind were elsewhere. She could hardly blame him for that; she longed to get a duster and tidy up a bit. All the same, Alice was surely pretty enough to override her surroundings—something must have gone wrong…
‘I’m ready, Professor,’ she said briskly. ‘I’ll let you know as soon as possible when I’ll be coming home,’ she told her sister, and was rewarded by a pouting face.
‘I suppose I’ll have to manage. Lucky you, it’ll be as good as a holiday.’
Alice got up and offered a hand to Professor Lister, looking at him in a little-girl-lost manner which Araminta found irritating, although probably, being a man, he liked it. He showed no signs of either liking or disliking it; she had never met a man who concealed his feelings so completely.
‘I’m sure you must be relieved to know that, after all this time, whatever it was your doctor diagnosed has apparently cured itself. I must urge you to go and have a check-up. It isn’t for me to say, but I feel sure that you have little reason to fear for your health.’ He shook her hand firmly and stood aside while Araminta kissed her sister’s cheek, but Alice was still peevish. She went over to the door with them and wished them a cold goodbye as they got into the car, shutting the door before they had driven away.
Araminta peeped at her companion’s profile; he looked stern.
‘As I said it is, of course, not for me to say, but I believe that your sister is in excellent health. I suggested that she should see her doctor so that he might reassure her. If she had needed medical care when she first went to him he would have advised her to see him regularly.’
‘He told her that she had to take things easily.’
‘But not for two years or more.’
‘It’s very kind of you to concern yourself, Professor Lister,’ said Araminta frostily, ‘but perhaps…’ She paused, not quite sure how to put it. ‘You’re a surgeon,’ she pointed out.
‘I am also a doctor of medicine,’ he told her blandly. ‘Have you all that you require for the next week or so?’
She wondered if she had been rude. ‘Yes, thank you. I’m sorry if I was rude; I didn’t mean to be.’
‘It is of no consequence. Indeed, I prefer outspokenness to mealy-mouthed deception.’
They were almost back at his house. ‘We shall leave directly after breakfast,’ he observed, with the cool courtesy which she found so daunting. ‘Will you see that the children are ready by nine o’clock—and the animals, of course?’ He drew up before his door and got out and opened her door for her. ‘I expect you would like an hour or so in which to pack for yourself—I’ll take the children out with the dogs.’
He stood in the hall looking down at her, unsmiling, while Buller fetched her bag from the car. He must find all this a most frightful nuisance, she reflected, his daysturned upside-down and, even if he’s fond of the children, he doesn’t like me overmuch. A sudden wish to be as pretty as Alice swam into her head; it was the impersonal indifference which she found so hard to bear.
She thanked him in her quiet way, and went upstairs and began to pack her things before going to see if Jimmy and Gloria had made a start on theirs. They hadn’t, and it would be too late by the time they got back and had had dinner; getting them up in the morning would be bad enough. She fetched their cases and began to pack for them as well.
The professor went to his study after dinner and Araminta, mindful of his placid, ‘We shall leave directly after breakfast. Will you see that the children are ready by nine o’clock,’ finished the packing, persuaded the children to go to their beds and went to her room, intent on a long hot bath and washing her hair, but she had got no further than taking the pins out when there was a tap on the door. There was Buller with a request that she would go at once to the study as the professor had been called away and wished to see her before he went.
‘He’ll have to wait while I get my hair up,’ said Araminta.
‘If I might venture to say so, miss, the professor is anxious to be gone—an urgent matter at the hospital, I believe. Could you not tie it back or plait it?’
‘Well, all right, I expect I’d better.’ She began with quick fingers to weave a tidy rope of hair over one shoulder; it hung almost to her waist, thick and mousy, and she was braiding the last inch or so when Buller knocked on the study door and held it open for her.
The professor was stuffing papers into his bag. He looked up as she went in and, if he noticed the hair, he made no comment.
‘Miss Smith, I have to return to the hospital, and I am not sure when I shall get back. There may not be time to discuss anything at our leisure before we leave. You will need money for household expenses—it is in this envelope, together with the telephone numbers you might need in an emergency. You will not hesitate to get in touch with me should you judge it necessary, or if you need more money. Does the agency pay you?’
‘Yes, when I’ve finished the job.’
‘You have enough money for yourself?’
She had very little, but she wasn’t going to say so. ‘Quite enough, thank you, Professor Lister.’ She had spoken quickly and he gazed at her sharply. He didn’t say anything, though, only nodded and gave her the envelope. ‘I’ll keep an account of what I spend,’ she assured him.
‘If you wish to do so.’ He sounded uninterested. ‘I’ll see you in the morning. Breakfast at eight o’clock.’ He went to open the door for her and, as she went past, he said softly, ‘I like the hair. Why do you bundle it up out of sight?’
Araminta was annoyed to find herself blushing. ‘It gets in the way,’ she said and added, for no reason at all, ‘I was going to wash it.’
She slid past him and away across the hall and up the staircase; halfway up she remembered that she hadn’t wished him goodnight.
By some miracle Araminta managed to get the children and the animals ready and down to breakfast by eight o’clock. There was no sign of their uncle, and Jimmy was quick to point out that she need not have chivvied them into such haste, but he had scarcely finished his grumbling when Professor Lister came in. He was wearing casual clothes and greeted them in his usual manner, but he looked tired, and Araminta wondered if he had been up half the night. She had the good sense not to ask, though, but ate her breakfast, saw to it that Jimmy and Gloria ate theirs, and then excused the three of them so that the animals could have last-minute attention. Obedient to his wish, she presented her small party at nine o’clock precisely in the hall. The cases had already been brought down and Buller had put them in the boot. Goldie and Neptune were there too, and the professor began to load the Rolls with its passengers.
‘You will sit in front with me, Miss Smith,’ he observed. ‘If you will have Tibs and his basket on your knee, Mutt can sit on Jimmy, and Goldie and Neptune can sit on the floor.’
If they felt rebellious the children didn’t say so, but got into the car and settled down with room to spare, leaving Araminta to settle herself in the comfort of the front seat.
Beyond enquiring as to everyone’s comfort, the professor had little to say, and Araminta, guessing that he was tired, kept silent. The children sounded happy enough and the animals were giving no trouble; she sat back and allowed her thoughts to wander.
They didn’t wander far. She was very conscious of the professor’s vast silent bulk beside her; if he had a private life—friends, girlfriends, a woman he loved—there had been no sign of them during the week; as far as she had seen, his days were wholly occupied by his work. He must have a private life, she thought. I dare say he’s tucked it out of sight while we’ve been living in his house. She began to think about the kind of woman he might love. Beautiful, of course, exquisitely dressed, amusing and witty, knowing just how to soothe him when he got home from a busy day at the hospital…
She looked out of her window and saw that they were well away from London; the A303 wasn’t far off. He wasn’t wasting time.
She turned to see if everything was as it should be on the back seat and, since it was, settled back again.
‘Comfortable?’ asked the professor.
‘Yes, thank you. Have you been up all night?’
He laughed a little. ‘Am I driving so badly? Not all night; I got home just after two o’clock.’
