The Silent Valley

by Jean S. MacLeod

  He gave her an odd, probing look.

  'I was capable of loving you once,' he said unemotionally, 'and I was foolish enough to believe that you returned that love. I'm four years older now, Jane, and four years wiser.'

  He moved towards the stairs.

  'I'll go up and see our patient,' he said. 'Will you ask one of the maids to send her up a tray?'

  He must care about Della—surely he must! Jane turned blindly in the direction of the kitchens to give the order for the tray, and then she made her way to the dining-room, where Hilde Frey was waiting for her.

  The post had arrived and letters and packages were piled neatly beside each plate. The continental breakfast had been abandoned and there was an array of silver chafing-dishes waiting on the sideboard, yet Jane felt that she could not eat. Her own place was not quite so bare as she had expected when she sat down at the table with a small slice of omelette on her plate. Several packages, wrapped in tissue paper and tied with gay ribbons, lay on the snowy cloth, and her eyes filled with grateful tears as they met Hilde's.

  'May I wish you a Merry Christmas again, Fraulein? she asked. 'This is all very kind of you!'

  Doktor Frey came in, beaming and rubbing his plump hands together.

  'We had Stuart with us last Christmas, too,' he said when he had greeted Jane. 'Three Christmastides in all, and now we have him for a fourth!' He laid an affectionate arm about his sister's stooped shoulders. 'It is good, Hilde, is it not?'

  'Indeed it is.' Hilde looked up as Stuart came into the room with two tissue-wrapped parcels in his hand. 'Ah, we are almost all here now. My brother, he is like a child and can scarcely bear to wait before he will open his presents!'

  'We are all here,' Stuart said, and Jane could not tell from his expression what he thought about Della's 'mood'. 'Della doesn't feel like making the trip downstairs this morning. She appears to be tired by last night's activities.'

  A quick look was exchanged between the two men, a reassuring look on Stuart's part, for the little doctor pulled out Jane's chair for her and bowed her into it.

  Jane opened her first parcel with trembling fingers. It was the one that had come by post and contained a box of handkerchiefs from Linda Jane with little horseshoes and black cats in the corners.

  'Someone appears to think that you are going to need a lot of luck in this job,' Stuart observed over her shoulder. 'I wonder why black cats are supposed to be lucky.'

  'Possibly because there's no doubt about them. They're black—definite, reliable.'

  'Like black sheep?' he suggested.

  'We're merely being silly!'

  Why were they bickering like that on Christmas Day? His attitude to Della had hurt her, but he had gone up to Della and, apparently, all was now forgiven. At least he had come downstairs with Della's gifts in his hand!

  She turned back to the table to open another parcel, producing a beautifully embroidered dressing-gown which was her present from Della. Tears gathered behind her eyes. Della gave the sort of thing she liked herself, the rich, luxurious present dear to every girl's heart.

  A third and fourth package contained a monogrammed horn spoon from the doctor and a small musical chalet from Hilde. Jane set the little tune tinkling by opening the lid and there .were tears glinting in her eyes as she faced the Freys across the table.

  'It's terribly kind of you,' she said. 'I don't really deserve all this ‑'

  'Apparently we think you do!'

  Stuart was still standing behind her chair and she could not see his face, but she felt that he was waiting for her to open her last parcel.

  The paper wrapping contained a long jeweller's box inside which lay a beautiful linked bracelet, the work of local craftsmen, which she had seen and admired many times but knew she could never afford. On the accompanying card was the brief message: 'Merry Christmas—Stuart.'

  For a moment she could not speak. Why had he done this? She could only see it as some quixotic jest, or, at best, consolation for having to spend Christmas so far away from home. Pain blurred her vision for a moment. What had she expected? A love gift?

  He bent over her shoulder and took the bracelet from its velvet bed.

  'They assured me that it could be altered if it didn't fit,' he said calmly. 'Shall we try?'

  'I—you shouldn't have done this, Stuart!'

  'Why not—for old acquaintance' sake?' He snapped the clasp into place about her wrist. 'You can thank me prettily when you find time.'

  He had not opened the second parcel, but when breakfast was over he came to stand beside Jane at the window.

  'Do I thank you for the scarf, or do I owe Della for the thoughtful little gesture?' he asked.

  Jane flushed scarlet.

  'She gave it to me with the pipe,' he continued relentlessly. 'Said it was from you, and I gathered that you were too shy to pass it on personally.'

  'It was Della's idea,' Jane murmured. 'We didn't know you were coming.'

  'True,' he agreed. 'Well, thanks all the same, Jane. I've never had a present by proxy before.'

  The telephone bell shrilled before Jane could reply and he turned to his hostess.

  'I'll get it, Hilde,' he offered. 'It will probably be for me. I rang the clinic earlier.'

  He went out, and Jane stood quite still by the window, her eyes on the sharp rim of the mountain, her fingers tight over the unexpected gift he had clasped about her wrist.

  'If Della remains in bed you must come up to the clinic with me this morning,' Albert Frey suggested. 'It is a wonderful day up there, when all trouble is submerged in celebration of our Lord's Birth. They are a grand people, these isolated ones! They have discovered how to make the best of life.'

  'I'd love to come with you,' Jane said. She had never visited the sanatorium, mainly because of Della's distaste for the idea, but she knew that she would find it interesting from a professional point of view. There was the possibility that she would see Doktor Frey at work later on, but today would be special in its own right.

  When Stuart came back into the room he looked directly at her with a tenseness about his jaw which had not been there five minutes ago.

  'The call is for you, Jane,' he said briefly. 'It's from Doctor Sark. Apparently he is at Arosa—not so very far distant as the crow flies.'

  Jane's first reaction was a sick sort of disappointment. The day which had started off so warmly had suddenly gone cold, but she remembered that her call was waiting, that somewhere near at hand Tom Sark sat at the end of the line conscious of surprising her with his unexpected presence in Switzerland.

  'Hullo!' he said gaily when she lifted the receiver. 'Guess who!'

  'I've already been told.' It was impossible to keep the flatness out of her voice, impossible not to let Tom feel that he was intruding. 'You gave your name, you know.'

  'I didn't give it so much as had it demanded of me!' he declared. 'Your host appears to be somewhat of a dragon, Jane, defending you against all comers!'

  'That—wasn't Doktor Frey, but—it doesn't matter,' Jane said unsteadily. 'You're out on holiday, I suppose?'

  'Partly—and partly to look for you! Don't grudge me the holiday. I haven't had one in years.'

  'Arosa is rather wonderful, I believe,' Jane said politely. 'How long have you been there, Tom?'

  'Just long enough to learn how to keep my feet on a _pair of skis. I'm coming up to see you!'

  'Oh—no! I—we're living here privately, you know.' Jane caught her breath, wondering how she was to explain the position, yet not quite sure which position she was trying to explain because Stuart's presence in Oberzach dominated the situation so much. 'We're Doktor Frey's guests. It's a very quiet place—isolated, in fact. There would be nothing here, for you, Tom.'

  'Think not? You're forgetting that you are there, aren't you? Seriously, Jane, I've got to see you. You've been deliberately avoiding me ever since that damned inquest business with Hemmingway.'

  'Mr. Hemmingway is here.'

  J
ane didn't know why she had made the statement, unless it was that she felt suddenly defenceless.

  'Opposition, eh?' Tom's laughter held just the slightest suggestion of annoyance. 'I knew he'd left Conyers, of course, but I had no idea we would meet again so soon.'

  'I don't know how long Stuart will be here,' Jane parried. 'It isn't really a holiday resort.'

  'Never mind! You can't put me off with that excuse. I know there's a hotel of sorts. I looked you up in the telephone directory, by the way. Wonderful institution that, after you've mastered the continental system!'

  Jane's limbs were trembling. She did not want Tom to come to Oberzach, but there seemed no way of stopping him. She had told him that she was Doktor Frey's guest, but he had lost no time in pointing out that he could go to the hotel.

  'This sounds like a rather unflattering silence, Janey!' he accused. 'And telephone calls eat into one's already depleted currency in this part of the world. However, I've got quite a scheme about that, and I feel that your Doktor Frey may been useful!'

  Jane opened her mouth to protest, but in that instant Tom had rung off with a breezy 'Expect me some time soon!' and she was left standing with the dead instrument in her hand. Slowly she replaced the receiver and turned back towards the dining-room, where Stuart met her in the doorway.

  'Everything set?' he enquired sardonically. 'This should make Christmas for you, Jane. Life is full of surprises!'

  She stood where he left her until Doktor Frey came out of his office with an armful of parcels and his habitual smile.

  'Are we ready to start?' he asked pleasantly. 'Hilde will look after Miss Cortonwell until you come back. Perhaps it is best that she should rest a little this morning.'

  'I must go up and see her.' Jane would have liked to get away by herself, but she had promised the doctor to accompany him to the clinic and she could not disappoint him.

  Della was completely offhand about the morning's plans.

  'Of course, Jane, you go!' she said. 'It will interest you professionally, I dare say, but I have no desire to see how the disinherited pine out their lives even under the ideal conditions of Doktor Frey's clinic. It just wouldn't interest me.'

  Della had decided to fight out her own battle and today Jane felt that she could not reach her.

  'I've had some news,' she said, fastening her blue windcheater. 'Doctor Sark is at Arosa. You remember Tom Sark from Conyers?'

  'Matron's white-haired boy!' Della looked up at her keenly. 'I had no idea that he was a winter sports enthusiast.'

  'He isn't.' Jane fastened the ear flaps of her fur-lined cap. 'He has just learned to ski.'

  'Is he coming here?'

  'Yes. He means to put up at the hotel.'

  Della laughed.

  'How popular we are!' She took up her manicure set and began to file her nails with the usual pretence at indifference. 'I'll get up for dinner,' she said. 'Stuart will be back then.'

  Albert Frey had brought the sleigh round to the terrace door and his sister was stacking it high with parcels. They live for the clinic, Jane thought. It is their lives' work.

  Hilde thrust a basket into her hands.

  'These are for the little ones,' she explained. Tell them I shall be up in time to hear them sing.'

  Jane had not realised that there were children at the sanatorium and her heart contracted at the thought.

  Stuart had gone on ahead of them. He had set out on skis, but they did not pass him on the twisting valley road. The ski trails cut across the fields, down over the hidden meadows where the cattle grazed in the summer months, while the road dipped and curved, clinging precariously to the rock face in places or spanning a deep ravine by an inadequate-looking wooden bridge.

  The sleigh glided evenly over the ice-bound surface, and presently they entered a wooden stretch where the sun lay dappled on the snow and the pines cast long shadows. The air was like wine at that altitude, crystal-clear and invigorating now that Jane had become acclimatised to it, and she breathed it in with keen appreciation. No wonder it held healing in its wings!

  They drove on, climbing steadily until they came to a cluster of chalets set on a hill. The valley behind them was obscure, lost beyond a great bastion of jutting rock, and it seemed as if they had entered some secret province, shut away from the busy world outside and entirely at peace.

  'These are the doctors' quarters,' Albert Frey explained, pointing to the tiered chalets. 'We are a small, self-supporting community up here, with our own dairy and our own workshops. Many of my patients are first-class craftsmen and it does them good to remain employed.'

  Beyond the chalets a long, low-built house squatted at the foot of a towering peak. It appeared, at first sight, to be made entirely of glass until Jane saw that it was surrounded by a vast glassed-in verandah on to which all the rooms on the lower floor opened. On the top storey were the usual wooden balconies of the average Swiss house, but they, too, were glassed in, forming a private division to each room. The patients at the clinic were evidently not forced to' lead a communal life if they did not wish to do so. The question of companionship was entirely up to them.

  'I love your chalets on the hill,' Jane said, looking back towards the little wooden houses silhouetted against the snow. 'They look like a miniature village, Doktor Frey.'

  'All our chalets are occupied, with the exception of one,' he said, indicating a distant homestead with his whip. 'It belongs to Stuart, although he never uses it now. My sister and I got it ready for him coming to Oberzach four years ago, thinking that he was to bring a bride with him, but the girl let him down. He came alone and lived up there for many months with his disappointment, but he worked, too— savagely, determinedly. How bitter he was at that time! How much passion and hatred we can expend on our disillusionments in our extreme youth! Even Stuart was no better than his fellows in that respect. He was harsh and unforgiving, and nothing would induce him to forgive the girl he had lost; but it also seemed that he could not forget her easily.'

  Jane felt as if a strangling hand had gripped her by the throat. The doctor's words pounded against her heart and she stared up at the closely-shuttered chalet as if she looked in at a vault. The grave of love! 'It seemed that he could not forget her easily!' That phase had passed now. Stuart had forgotten, but it seemed that he still could not forgive.

  'Doktor Frey,' she said unsteadily, 'I was that girl. Stuart couldn't have told you, and now I'm wondering if I had any right to come here.'

  'So!' he said. 'My sister wondered which one it was! When Stuart wrote to me we knew that he must have a special interest in this patient he asked us to take, and Hilde can always find the seeds of romance somewhere. This time, however, it is not so.'

  Jane felt that she could not explain how deeply interested Stuart really was in Della, quite apart from the fact that she was his patient. The Freys would soon discover that for themselves. She could not, however, have gone on pretending that Stuart's past was a blank to her, not after the many little kindnesses which the doctor and his sister had shown her. If Hilde and Albert considered the situation strange, it would be up to Stuart to explain it to them in his own way, for all she could tell them was a simple truth.

  'You will see how Stuart has worked' during these past four years,' the professor said, his manner completely unchanged as he led her up the clinic steps. To all intents and purposes it looked nothing more than a comfortable, residential hotel, and Jane felt that Della need not have been afraid to come to it. 'It was here that he laid the foundations of the great work he has yet to do.'

  They went from room to room, and Jane was introduced to the patients; people from all walks of life, who were also the doctor's friends. An aura of tense excitement prevailed, and the women were all attired in their prettiest dresses. Some of them had put artificial flowers in their hair or diamante clips at their throats, and they chattered incessantly. It was all so natural that Jane almost forgot she was in a hospital at all. These people had accepted the limita
tions of their lives and were reasonably content with what they had. Here and there a group of four were gathered round a table playing canasta, and in the long, pine-panelled games room a set of table-tennis was in robust progress, the dark shadow hovering in the background held completely at bay.

  When the luncheon bell rang Stuart came through from the children's clinic to join them.

  'He'll take you to see the babies afterwards,' the professor said. 'They are Stuart's especial interest.'

  When the meal was over the presents were cut from the tree and Jane was asked to present them. It was all very informal and very gay. Doktor Frey came away with a great many gifts he had not expected, and Jane could see that he was deeply touched by his patients' generosity, which he accepted as a mark of their love and esteem.

  They each took their individual leave of him when they went for their afternoon rest, and Jane followed Stuart to the children's wing. The noise here was terrific. Lunch had been served early and the afternoon routine had dissolved into chaos. It was Christmas Day, and not even the smallest child could be induced .to sleep for any length of time. Hilde had arrived, having negotiated the journey from Oberzach on skis, as Stuart had done, but she had not managed to persuade Della to accompany her.

  The children called her 'Auntie Hilde', laughing uproariously at the comic stories she told, and then they sang, shyly, at first, because Jane was a stranger in their midst, and then joyously, because Stuart encouraged them.

  The presents were taken from yet another tree and tired three-year-olds clasped teddy bears and wonderful dolls and toy engines to their grubby little pinafores as they were shepherded off to bed.

  'It's almost six o'clock,' Stuart said. 'Have you enjoyed your afternoon?'

  Tears stood bright in Jane's eyes.

  'How I envy you!' she said. 'No wonder you've made this your life's work.'

  The thought rose unbidden that it might have been hers, also, standing like an unsheathed sword between them for a moment before he turned away.

  'When do we have to expect Doctor Sark?' he asked abruptly.