“Now you came along, Penny, and help me wash up ... leave Robin and Kay on their own for a bit, they must have so much to talk about ... Her eyes twinkled. “Besides, with such a short engagement, I expect they’ll be wanting to spend it alone!”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Kay was aware of a strange sense of constraint. It had been different with Penelope and her mother present, but now, confronted with Robin alone, she felt tongue-tied and ridiculously self-conscious. Stealing a glance at him while he busied himself with his supper, Kay was again aware of the difference from the Robin of her youth. She still cared for him, of that she hadn’t any doubt, but it was oddly disturbing, as if the love she had given for so long, the affection she still felt, had been for a stranger.
Robin pushed back the tray and leaning forward, drew Kay on to his knee. “Darling, you are happy, aren’t you?” His fingers stroked the cool skin of her arm. “You think I’ve changed. I have, quite a bit, the sort of life I’ve lived has made the difference. It’s only superficial, I feel as I always did and I’ve loved you since you were about so high—in a pinafore!” With his broad, strong hand he indicated the height. “Such a slim little thing too—you are still slim—almost thin, do they work you too hard?”
“Silly.” Kay rested her head against Robin’s neck and her hand smoothed the thick fair hair. “I don’t suppose I work as hard as Penny, it’s just the way I’m made.”
“Sweetest, can we marry very soon? I want you at the farm, I can’t bear the idea of living there on my own.”
“Whenever you say.”
Robin drew her closer and kissed her fervently. “It can’t be too soon for me ... I’ve waited too long for you already.” As his hold tightened, Kay struggled free.
“Darling ... you’re crushing the breath out of me! I won’t even survive for the wedding if you behave like that.” Kay pulled herself from his clasp, and raising her hands, smoothed back the red-gold waves of her hair.
“Don’t tidy it. I love it like that ... it’s marvellous, I wish you still had all those curls and things you had as a kid.”
“I’m afraid that wouldn’t have gone down at all well with Matron.” Kay’s cheeks dimpled at the thought. “Long curls would look pretty awful topped with a Sister’s bonnet!”
“You couldn’t look anything but beautiful,” Robin announced with sincerity, but then added more seriously: “But what about this wedding? ... I shall have to go to town to see about the licence, we must have a bit of time together before you leave me again for a whole month—you know I’m going to hate you going back to hospital.”
Robin drew her head down to his shoulder and she was conscious of the tweed material of his jacket against the soft skin of her face, yet, in its very roughness, it held a soothing quality. From beneath her half-closed lids she watched his hand as it caressed her arm, so tanned in contrast with her own white skin. Such strong hands too, blunt-fingered and capable.
As Penelope burst into the room, Kay pulled herself erect and slid back into her seat at Robin’s feet.
“I can’t stop out any longer, there is so much I want to hear, you just can’t monopolize Robin all the evening.” Penelope pouted prettily as she flung herself back into the chair she had recently vacated. “After all, you’ll soon have him for keeps. Never mind what Mother says, I insist on sharing him for the time being.”
“Of course you can come in ... and Mother too, where is she?”
“Gone to shut up the chickens.” Penelope lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply before continuing. “So you’ve tried a bit of farming ‘down under’? Well, what about it, going to try out any of their methods here?”
For the next ten minutes the conversation was far too technical for Kay to take any part but, listening, she was amazed at Penelope’s knowledge. No doubt her veterinary work with Mr. Morgan and her consequent association with all the neighboring farms, had been the source of her information, but it was certainly a cause of wonder to Kay that her little sister had so swiftly grown into a really knowledgeable person. Of course, she’d seen so little of Penelope, she reminded herself; all those years of hospital had cut her adrift from her home and in those years, Penelope had grown from child to woman and apparently a very self-possessed young woman too, Kay decided indulgently.
“So you think I ought to turn over those lower fields to corn?”
“Undoubtedly.” Penelope flicked her ash on to the carpet “That upper land—the part your dad used to call the ‘five acre,’ wants better drainage too, you ought to get right down to that...”
Kay found herself listening with growing amazement. Penelope was talking sense too, there wasn’t much doubt about that. She herself didn’t understand a word, but Robin was obviously not only interested but impressed. They both seemed engrossed in the discussion and it was only when Kay rose to place an ashtray on the arm of Penelope’s chair, that they appeared to awaken to her presence.
“Don’t bother, darling, I prefer the carpet.” Penelope laughed as, with deliberate aim, she threw the stub of her cigarette through the open window. “Hope you don’t mind us talking all this shop?”
“Of course I don’t.” Kay returned to her stool and flashed a smile at Robin. “I’m trying to learn. I’m afraid I’ll be an awfully ignorant farmer’s wife ... do you mind?”
“I don’t mind anything ... so long as you are my wife.” Robin slipped his arm round her shoulder and again drew her against his knee. “I love you just as you are, just as you always were, that’s what I came back to you for. Do you still play the piano?”
“I never have a chance now ... I haven’t played for years...”
“Sometimes when she comes home at weekends, she gets down to it.” Penelope laughed. “We don’t encourage her, if we did she’d never even stop for meals.”
“Play something now.”
Kay rose and crossing to the piano opened it, displaying the now yellowed ivory keys. Her touch was almost caressing as her hands rested on the mellowed rosewood, then drawing up the stool, she ran her fingers idly up and down the keys until soft cadences of sound filled the tiny room. Gradually the idle chords changed to the tuneful melody of a Chopin waltz, breaking with a burst of sound into a Polonaise.
“My word, you haven’t forgotten how to play.” Robin’s tone was charged with awesome admiration.
“My fingers are stiff—horrible—but I suppose I’ll never really forget.” Kay’s words were softly spoken and scarcely rose above the sound of the music, as if in reality she were only reassuring herself. As she continued to play, snatches of her companies’ conversation reached her ears. Without any feeling of resentment, she realized how swiftly her playing had been forgotten, they were probably no longer even aware of it.
“I suppose you’ll replace your stock of Jerseys?” Penelope was querying. “Your father sold out, but I think they are the best proposition if you want to pick up that side of the trade again. The old dairies are in marvellous condition, Mrs. Sykes has seen to that; she always was proud of her dairy work in the old days.”
“Old man Sykes and his wife are the only two left there now. I phoned her from the station, apparently she has been keeping the house in order too, anyway she said it would be all ready for me tonight, sheets aired and all.” Robin laughed. “I think she wanted to wait up and tuck me in, but I told her I might be late, so I hope she’ll have retired for the night.”
“You’ll come up here for your meals, won’t you?” Penelope eyed Robin anxiously. “I know you’ll have your hands full at Aldon as soon as you take over, but creature comforts are important too; you’d better feed here until you’ve got Kay to cook for you.”
“I think I’ll let Mrs. Sykes look after me during the day but I’ll come over in the evenings. There’ll be a heap of things I’ll want to discuss with you too, I can see that your fund of information on local conditions will be more use to me than all my Bush experience,” he laughed.
“I was telling Kay ... there
is a sale out at Staunford early next week, Farmer Dell’s stuff ... you remember him ... you’ll pick up good stock there; he had modern tractors too, you’ll need plenty of replacements.”
“You’d better come with me, I’ve no idea of today’s prices; can you get off?”
“Yes, I’ll fix that all right.”
Snatches of conversation continued to reach Kay’s ears, until she rose from the piano and rejoined her companions. “Still talking shop?” Her hand rested affectionately on Robin’s shoulder as she stood behind him. “Darling, I forgot to ask you ... do you want a bed fixed up here for you tonight?”
“I understand I’m all prepared for, at the farm. I’ve just been telling Penny I’ll eat up here in the evenings, but I think I’d better be on the spot in the daytime if I’m going to get things moving.” His hand closed over hers, pressing it fondly. “Come down in the morning and have a look round your future home ... I’ll expect you early and we’ll do a round of inspection together.” He turned to Penelope. “Think you could get off for an hour or so and join us? Before I re-stock, I’d like to discuss the question of grazing land with you, and then that matter of drainage...”
“I’ll pop in for a few minutes, I’ve got to take the car into Staunford for Mr. Morgan. I can drop off at your place on my way back.” .
“That’s fine!” Robin rose to his feet and stretched his arms above his head, while he stifled a yawn. “I’m loath to go but it’s an early start for me tomorrow, from now on it’s work ... work ... work!” He pressed Kay to his side and looked down at her possessively. “I am going to produce the best crops and breed the finest cattle,” he told her proudly. “In fact I’m going to make Aldon Farm the envy of every other farmer in this part of the county.”
CHAPTER NINE
Kay fastened the last button on Christine’s checked gingham frock, then turned the child round to face her. “There, all finished, now we’ll just run a comb through your hair...”
“I can do that myself.” Christine limped clumsily over to the dressing table and commenced pulling the comb through the tangled mass of her hair. “You see, I must begin to do lots of things for myself again.” She paused, pursing her lips as she negotiated a particularly troublesome tangle. “Uncle said that if I were a bother to you and Mrs. Somers, I wouldn’t be able to stay.”
Kay hid a smile, it certainly sounded like Peter Raynal; he’d probably primed the child with every “do” and “don’t” before she’d left hospital.
“You won’t be a trouble, pet,” Kay assured her while she busied herself tidying up the bed and Christine’s scattered night clothes. “You know, I’ll have to leave you as soon as you are dressed,” she continued. “I’m going over to meet Mr. Aldon, and see my new home, you’ll be with Mother so you won’t mind, will you?”
“Mrs. Somers is going to show me heaps of things this morning.” Her hair tidied, Christine seated herself on the edge of the bed and turned an excited face up to her companion. “I’m going to help feed the chickens and collect the eggs, and then we are going to pick beans and ... and oh, lots of other things I can’t remember. Anyway I’ll be very busy and I’ll have to do a lot of walking.”
“That’s fine!” Kay smiled down affectionately at the eager little face. “And I do believe you’ve got more color in your cheeks already!”
“That’s puppy,” Christine announced. “He has licked and licked me, I think he has rubbed the color there. Penelope ... you know she told me I could call her Penelope,” Christine explained apologetically, “came in to see me early this morning, she told me she works with animals and she knows an awful lot about them. She said I mustn’t spoil Biggy ... I’m going to call him Biggy—you remember that was the name of my form mistress, and I liked her better than anyone at school—I’m sure she wouldn’t mind ... she wouldn’t, would she?” she added anxiously.
“I’m sure she wouldn’t.” Kay’s tone was reassuring, and without waiting, Christine continued.
“Penelope says he mustn’t be coddled too much, he must get out a bit and have exercise and he must go back to Mabel sometimes, after all, she is his mother and might be concerned about him,” she explained, a serious note.in her childish voice. “Anyway, Penelope took him down to the kennel and as soon as I’m dressed I can collect him again and then he’ll walk round with me, while I’m helping Mrs. Somers with all that work.”
“I think that’s a good idea ... How about hurrying down now because, you see. I’ve got to get over to the farm as soon as I can.”
While Kay assisted Christine down the narrow stairway, the child went on chatting. “Can I come and see your new home one day...?” She paused in the hall, then added: “And please, there is something else I want too ... very badly ... I want you to play to me again ... you will, won’t you ... promise?”
“Play for you?” There was genuine astonishment in Kay’s voice. “You mean the piano? But you’ve never even heard me play.”
“Oh, but I have, last night... I lay in bed listening... somehow I just knew it was you, it sounded like you and it was lovely ... I kept praying you wouldn’t stop, and praying came right, because I fell asleep before you stopped.”
So someone had appreciated her playing! Kay smiled to herself. It seemed so odd that the child had really enjoyed Chopin, and she certainly hadn’t yet reached the age which tendered polite compliments. “Yes, one day when we are alone I’ll play for you. Now you just sit in that armchair until Mother is ready for you and I’ll go and fetch—what’s his name? Biggy?—and he can keep you company.”
Ten minutes later, walking to Aldon Farm, Kay was conscious of a deep inward sense of contentment. Humming softly she plucked idly at the overhanding branches as she swung along the narrow lane. The undulating hills, patch-worked with fields of varying colors, looked like the back screen on a stage, while the accompanying sounds of twittering birds and the hum of insects was, to her ears, more beautiful than any orchestra. The sun, still low, was already warm on her bare head and arms and cast dancing shadows on the ground at her feet. As Kay pushed back the heavy iron gate leading to the farm, it creaked ominously on its hinges; the familiar sound awakened memories, of so long ago when, with neat pigtails and a starched pinafore and clasping Penelope’s hot sticky fingers firmly in her own, she had made her way up the rutted drive to the house. Every Sunday, as children, they had had tea with the Aldons ... hot scones, fresh from the oven and home-made cherry jam ... Kay could remember it as if it were but yesterday. Kay’s eyes were misted as the long, low building of Aldon Farm came into view and it was as if in a dream that she saw again, after so many years, the dull red brick of the house and the weathered woodwork of the porch. Her future home...! Kay caught her breath at the thought and a warm feeling of joy filled her heart almost to suffocation.
“There you are at last!” Robin, in a pair of worn slacks and an open-neck shirt, emerged from the doorway and hurrying towards Kay gripped her in his bear-like hug. “I wondered what had happened to you ... I expected you ages ago.”
“You are squashing me! I can’t answer if you won’t let me breathe.” Kay laughed. “I wanted to get here earlier, but there seemed such oceans of things to do and I couldn’t leave everything to Mother. I wanted to get Christine a bit acclimatized too, before I walked out on her,” she explained, while, her arm hooked through Robin’s, they entered the house. For a moment, Kay was silent as she stood in the doorway, her eyes wandering round the large room upon which the door had given direct access. “It hasn’t changed at all, not one bit ... I think I remember every detail ... it’s a lovely room ... those old beams ... that fireplace ... it will be marvellous!” Her voice was charged with emotion as she spoke and as Robin’s arm slipped round her waist, she pressed her head close to his shoulder. “Robin, it’s wonderful ... the loveliest home in the world.”
“The house is all right, Mrs. Sykes has looked after it pretty well, and her old man has done what he could with the farm ... but of cours
e it was quite beyond one pair of hands and it’s in a pretty bad state ... there is plenty of work for me ahead ... I just don’t know where to start. Penny said she’d come along sometime this morning, she’ll have a shock, I don’t think even she had any idea of conditions.”
“You know none of us has been near here for years. Soon after you went away, Mrs. Aldon had that first stroke ... she was never right after that and hated visitors, even old friends, so of course we all kept away. Then, after she died, Mother called on Mr. Aldon but it seemed as if he’d got so used to being alone that he had grown to prefer things that way...” Kay spoke with some diffidence, fearful of hurting Robin’s feelings. “It wasn’t that we didn’t want to come ... we were only to anxious to get your father interested in everything again, but it just didn’t work ... he preferred to be left alone.”
“I know.” Robin drew Kay closer. “He didn’t want anything ... not even to go on living after Mother died ... I was in the army then or I’d have got back ... Well...” He paused and his voice resumed its normal accents, “we’ve got a lot to do ... and plenty to talk about, we’d better get started. First of all, I have had a chat with Mrs. Sykes; she and her old man have been living on the premises since Dad died ... it was the only way they could keep things in fairly reasonable order ... their own cottage is now filled to the roof with children and grandchildren and heaven alone knows what, so I’ve told them they cart stop on here ... Sykes will go on working with the cattle, of course, and his wife will help you in the house ... There, my love...!” he kissed Kay fondly. “All domestic problems solved for you already ... aren’t you pleased with me?”
Releasing herself, Kay straightened her hair and smoothed down her frock over her hips; by these simple actions she gained those few seconds which she badly needed to frame the words which had sprung to her lips. “Mrs. Sykes is not really suited to that sort of work, is she? ... I mean ... she is a dear old thing and all that... but when we paint the place and have new furniture, carpets, curtains and things ... well ... I...”
Peter Raynal, Surgeon Page 9