by Jane Arbor
He broke off at the sound they both heard; at the foreshortened sight below of Bob’s car and an ambulance arriving simultaneously; at the attendants running round to the back doors, extracting a stretcher and preparing to rig it for lowering down the ladder with Ted oh it; at Bob talking urgently to Ron, before making a ‘Lead the way’ gesture and following Ron up, the ambulance men toting the stretcher up behind.
Fifteen minutes later the operation was complete. Ted had been shipped into the ambulance, Ron had left to explain matters to their ‘gaffer’, Bob said that while he was there he would look in on Matron, and when Daniel had taken his luggage from his car he and Verity went together towards the main school entrance.
Though her limbs were a-jump with nerves, Verity felt strangely elated. With her ordeal she had broken a lifelong ugly dream; Daniel seemed to understand what the climb had cost her and the sensation was that of confidently walking on air. But alas for pride going before ... At the steps leading up to the big double doors she went ahead of Daniel, tripped clumsily and went sprawling, her hands clutching emptily as she fell.
She heard Daniel exclaim testily as he set down his cases and bent to her. But suddenly she was laughing, seeing the wry side of falling over a set of shallow steps instead of, perhaps fatally, eighty feet or so from a ladder in a gale. She was still laughing as he helped her up and hadn’t stopped when, half supporting her, half frog-marching her, he shouldered open the doors and turning her to face him, gave her cheek a slap that was light but unmistakably sharp.
A hand to the stinging place, she stared at him.
‘W-what? Well, it was funny, wasn’t it? Don’t you think so? My being scared to my marrow-bones to climb the tower, then doing a “Pooh—nothing to it” act, and then tumbling over my own feet up a tread about a bee’s knee high?’ she appealed.
‘Funny?’ Daniel was staring too. ‘You were really laughing then? At yourself? And I thought I had to treat you for hysteria from shock!’ His stare became a smile which, for him, was oddly unsure, and she slanted her own glance away from his deep long look, forbidding herself the folly of believing there had been tenderness for her in his eyes.
Making a small task of brushing herself down, she said, ‘Of course I was laughing at myself. I was never further from needing to be smacked out of hysteria in my life.’
‘And I, if I may say so,’ he retorted, ‘was never nearer spanking you in earnest than when I thought you were up those ladders for all the wrong reasons! When I saw you there and realized it was you, I was fit to be tied with rage. And do you know what I was thinking all the way up until I reached you?’
‘I suppose—that I was what you called me when you did—“a foolhardy little idiot”, wasn’t it?’
He nodded. ‘Yes, that—mixed up with the rest. The rest! I’d have said there wasn’t time for the crazy mixed-up anger and fear for you that I went through. But there was. I found I was talking to myself—“That’s Verity up there. Verity! She can’t climb a stepladder—she said so. She hasn’t moved since you spotted her. She has panicked, and if she falls it could be too late. You had your chance, you fool. You could have asked her and didn’t—because she didn’t help you. And now—any second now—it could be too late!” ’
‘I don’t understand. Too late for what? And when didn’t I help you?’ she worried.
‘Don’t you remember? On Christmas night when I begged you to help me with Clere, you answered Yes to just that. Dutifully. You either didn’t know or didn’t want to know how much more there was to my question than I had the courage to ask.’
She echoed, ‘Didn’t want to know? Why, it was you who took the whole thing back and as good as told me to forget it, saying you hated the thought of having to ask me—whatever it was—again!’
‘Well?’ He made of the long pause a question in itself. ‘Well, my obtuse one, do you really suppose a man relishes having to propose in cold blood when he dreads the answer he’ll get? Don’t you think, when a man loves a woman as I’ve come to love you, that he ought to be able to hope enough of his feeling has got through to her that he shouldn’t have to ask to be put out of his misery, one way or the other?’
‘You mean?’ Verity’s fingers flew to her lips in a childish gesture of doubt. ‘You were proposing to me? Asking me to marry you to help you with Clere?’
He drew down her hand and imprisoned both in his. ‘Deliberately deaf now too?’ he chided. ‘Didn’t you hear me say I love you? I want to marry you—full stop. If you took me, you’d be taking on Clere too. But I love you, Verity, my woman—love you! That’s the real importance. And hand on heart, can you in honesty say you haven’t known?’
‘Hand on heart—’ she began shakily. Then, taking in the wonder of it, ‘But oh, I’ve wanted to! How I’ve wanted to, you’ll never guess. I thought—’
‘Leave it. So did I. So many things—But if that’s really your answer—that you’ve wanted me as I want you—what are we waiting for? Come here!’
There were still too many questions. But in his arms there was no more doubt. Only the rapture of being there by right of their need of each other. No more quicksands of hope and perplexity. Certainty now, firm and sure.
CHAPTER X
Presently there was time for the questions; for the happy Whys? and Hows? and Whens? which explored the still uncharted country between them.
‘How was I to guess what you felt about me?’ Verity wanted to know. ‘You snubbed me roundly the day you arrived and you’ve kept me firmly in my place ever since.’
Daniel retorted, ‘Don’t flatter yourself! That day you and Lance only registered with me as a couple of aborigines expecting to be traded down the river. But—“ever since”? May I remind you you’ve a pretty turn of arm’s-length stuff yourself? What about the time you called me “just”—as if it burned your tongue?’
‘Oh, that!’ Verity laughed. ‘I was working off my resentment against Jane, I think. But’—this she found difficult to express—‘I didn’t mean “in my place” as your secretary. I’m not narrow enough to mind that. But there have been other times—out-of-school times when you’ve been specially kind and then you’ve suddenly withdrawn, gone out of reach. And that hurt.’
‘Times such as? You must quote occasions!’
She laughed again. ‘How many? Well, here’s one. You see, I had realized, and Mother has admitted it since, that she was indulging a pipe-dream about a match between you and me. And I thought, if you knew it too, that could explain why, whenever we seemed to move nearer to each other, if only as friends, you always—pushed me away and reheated again.’
There was a pause. Then Daniel said gently, ‘My sweet, this can’t hurt you now. But I confess it was why. It wasn’t long after that first day that I knew all you meant to me. But I also knew just what your mother was up to, bless her, and if there is one fundamental right a man has, it’s to choose his own woman for himself, not to be jockeyed towards even the right one in someone else’s time. Do you see?’
‘And I was—the right one?’
‘Silly question—silly answer. Now may I ask some?’
‘Not yet. So that, the night Nash died and I practically begged you to kiss me, you retreated then because you thought Mother wasn’t the only one making the pace? That I was too?’
‘You?’ Daniel exploded. ‘My darling girl, I never saw myself as a starter with you—Why did you make it easy for me to kiss you?’
Because I wanted you to!’
‘Wanted me to? You’re sure? It wasn’t just because I happened to be there?’
‘If it had been, I shouldn’t have been so—so mortified when you practically patted me on the head and told me I’d feel differently in the morning!’
‘Patted your head? I did nothing of the kind. I kissed you, didn’t I? And if you knew how badly I wanted to in a way you couldn’t mistake! But you were all too vulnerable that night and I felt it wasn’t fair to trade on your desolation over Nash. Besides, I wasn�
�t sure then how things stood between you and Wales. Later I thought I knew. And later still Jane Dysart put a construction on your relationship with him that sounded pretty nasty. I didn’t let her see it mattered, but to my jealousy it did—too much. She accused you of—’
Verity nodded. ‘Ira told me Jane hinted that I couldn’t leave any man alone and that I was trying to take Bob away from his girl-friend. As if I could compete, the way she’s been playing him like a fish for long enough! Anyway, they got engaged on Christmas Eve and Bob has been going about in a cloud of ecstasy ever since. And you see, Bob and I have been doing that kind of thing for years—saving face for each other when we were in a spot. I’d asked him to take me to the Golden Strand because I wanted to flaunt him at you.’
Daniel grimaced. ‘You flaunted him too successfully. But why?’
‘Because I didn’t want you to think I had any part in Mother’s matchmaking for us. Besides, there was Ira—’
‘Ira?’ Daniel looked as if he had missed the allusion.
‘You went to the Golden Strand Gala with her and you kissed her that night, didn’t you?’
His eye gleamed wickedly. ‘Let’s say that, like you, she made it difficult for me to refuse. But how did you know? Did she claim my scalp later?’
‘She had boasted beforehand that she could, and I didn’t doubt it. And talk about flaunting! She had everyone beginning to watch for developments between you.’
‘Exactly.’ Daniel appeared to be relishing a private joke. ‘As astute and devious a young woman as I’ve ever enjoyed observing at close quarters, Ira,’ he added.
‘Close? You can say that again!’ quipped Verity. ‘But what do you mean about Ira?’
‘Just that I have a theory about her. But I think I’ll leave you to find out, and if I’m wrong you may name your own price for a—Anything you specially want?’
Verity traced the line of his sleeve down to his hand and turned that palm upwards. ‘Nothing now. I—seem to have got it,’ she whispered.
‘And if I have, what have I done to deserve it, I wonder?’ He drew her to him again, his kiss and his touch at first gentle, then urgent, hungry, summoning her response and her promise in the lovers’ language which has no need of words. There was still so much to say. But for the moment touch and sight and their straining nearness said it all.
A long time later Daniel asked, ‘When do you expect this theatre party home? And I hope you realize all—this is going to show?’
As if she could conceal the miracle by cooling her flushed cheeks and smoothing her ruffled hair, Verity ran her hands over both. ‘Oh, not to all of them, surely? Not yet!’
‘But certainly to your mother. She’ll be surprised and pleased to see me, and then she has only to look at you. Do you mind?’
‘Do you?”
Daniel grinned. ‘I can’t wait to see her reaction, and I’ll eat my own words, seasoned to taste, if she doesn’t claim it as entirely her unaided work!’
‘Not wholly unaided, is my guess,’ Verity laughed. ‘I think she’ll give our stars credit for some of it.’
They were both right, and by the next day everyone at Clere knew. Mrs. Lytton saw to that, and in hearing her tell the news to all and sundry they allowed her the airy assertion that ‘naturally a mother sensed these things’ and that she had ‘seen it coming for quite some time’. Only to Verity, when they had sat late talking overnight, had she admitted that since she had learned Verity’s secret, she had only let herself hope ... and pray.
Bob Wales, told when he rang to give good news of Ted in hospital, said, ‘Well, blow me! So that’s what that Golden Strand caper was in aid of! You can tell Verity I’ll scrag her, if she doesn’t come clean with the whole story, chapter and verse!’ And though Lance’s first reaction was a blank, ‘You’re joking, of course. Try pulling the other one, why not?’ both Verity and Daniel agreed in their impression that he saw advantage and added prestige in the prospect of owning a brother-in-law as High Master and a sister as ‘Mrs. High.’
The one person whom Mrs. Lytton most wanted to confound with her triumphant tidings escaped her until the evening of that day. Ira had left Clere early to join Jane, who was staying near the hospital until Nicholas was off the danger list. Ira had told the maids at West House that she might not return herself that night. But shortly after dusk her taxi drove past and Mrs. Lytton suggested asking her to dinner, murmuring, ‘Such a pity for the poor girl to have to eat all alone,’ as if she had no other motive in the world for the invitation than that she found unbearable the thought of Ira’s solitary meal.
She was a long time on the inter-house phone and rejoined Verity slightly deflated.
In answer to Verity’s question—‘Oh yes, Ira will come to dinner. Delighted, she said. And when I told her about you and Daniel she said all the right things—congratulations to Daniel and how pleased she was for you. But she said, “It goes to show just what a good publicity agent can do, doesn’t it?” and when I asked her what she meant, she only laughed. And then what do you think?—she came out with the news that she’s engaged herself! To Guy Tabor! After all I did for that man in the way of moral support and tipping him off about Klosters, and not a word from him since to thank me!’ concluded Mrs. Lytton indignantly.
Verity had to laugh. ‘You’ll have to make successful intrigue its own reward, Mother darling! But it’s certainly a surprise. Did Ira tell you how it all came about—that she had accepted Guy Tabor? Or when she did?’
‘No, though it must have been after he went on that Munich trip, or the Dysarts and Daniel would have known. But we had to ring off, as Ira was expecting an inward call from Jane, reporting on Nicholas. So she asked if you would walk over to West before dinner. She seemed to want to see you alone. You’ll go, dear, I expect?’
Verity went, to find Ira ready with drinks. As she handed Verity her choice, she drawled, ‘Well, I dare say we can take the mutual good wishes as read? I just wanted to say “Sorry” to you in private, for needing to be home and dry myself before I let you off the hook. Or hasn’t it dawned even yet what I was up to with your Daniel?’
This had to be played by ear. ‘Up to?’ Verity queried.
‘Technique, dear. Technique. Lesson Two, remember? Guy never saw me as anything but the most intelligent secretary he had ever had until I walked out on him. And he was still only missing a secretary until I let him get the message that I had your Chief in tow. And don’t deny, my pet, that I didn’t give you some bad moments over that!’
And how you would like me to agree! thought Verity. Aloud she said, ‘You thought you had to teach Guy Tabor he was in love with you, so you?’
Ira cut in, ‘He managed to learn well enough to follow me to Switzerland. But I let him go to Munich before I accepted him by long-distance phone. So I thought I owed it to you to tell you not to worry; that I never did see myself as the First Lady of Clere. Oh dear me, no. This place has got far too rarefied an air for me.’
This was too much! But on a long shot—on Daniel’s ‘I have a theory about Ira’—Verity said crisply, ‘Not to worry either. You, I mean. Because you never had the chance. Daniel at least knew quite well what you were about!’
‘He did? I don’t believe it!’ But the denial lacked conviction, and it was enough for Verity that the doubt had been sown in Ira’s mind.
For a minute or two they sipped their drinks in silence. Then Ira looked at her watch. ‘If I’m joining you for dinner, time we made a move,’ she said.
‘Yes.’
But as Verity went to set down her glass beside Ira’s, their hands brushed, and a flash of need to know the other girl a little better made her ask,
‘Tell me, you haven’t just—angled for Guy Tabor? You are in love with him too?’
Ira’s eyes softened and a smile touched the corner of her mouth. ‘And if I’m not, what do you think I went to all that trouble for, honey—huh?’ she said.
They returned, to find Mrs. Lytton in the h
all, ruffling through the tissue of a long florists’ box, containing a magnificent sheaf of golden-bronze roses.
She looked up, ‘For me, by special delivery from Cardinal’s of Norwich! Ah—’ She read the ivory gift-card she had found, then passed it to Verity. ‘They’re from Mr. Tabor. Imagine that!’ she said.
Ira’s brow creased in surprise. ‘From Guy—to you? Why should he send you flowers?’
Mrs. Lytton’s blue eyes widened in bland innocence. ‘I can’t think! Can you?’ she appealed to Verity.
In front of Ira, Verity hadn’t the heart to tell her, ‘Yes.’
If Ira suffered any misgivings where Daniel was concerned, she gave no hint of it. Throughout the evening her gaiety and poise could not be faulted, and when Daniel suggested that he and Verity should walk her back to West House, she linked an arm in his, taking joint possession of him with Verity, and her parting from them was an airy, ‘See you Around—Be happy!’
As the door closed behind her Verity said, ‘You can keep your money.’
Daniel understood. ‘I was right, then? She was using me as a stooge, to make Tabor realize what he was missing? And it worked, apparently?’
‘Ira thinks so, though it sounds rather contrived to me. And she doesn’t know that it was Mother who sent Guy Tabor after her to Switzerland.’