When Two Paths Meet

by Neels, Betty

  Which she undoubtedly did; the cold and wind had given her a fine colour now, but her hair was all over the place. She used the comb laid ready there, cast a critical eye over her appearance, and went back to the hall.

  ‘In here,’ called the doctor from a half opened door, and as she reached it he opened it wide. The dogs were already there, sitting before a blazing fire and, curled up on a little stool to one side of the fireplace, was a rather battered-looking cat with a torn ear, and fur in a variety of colours.

  ‘Joseph.’ The doctor waved a large hand at the animal.

  ‘Oh, of course—his coat.’ She bent to stroke the animal, who purred loudly.

  ‘Have this chair.’ He pulled forward a small, velvet-covered armchair. ‘Mrs Spooner is bringing tea. I seldom have time for it, but it’s one of the nicest meals, don’t you think?’

  She had a momentary vision of tea in her room; the serviceable brown teapot and pleasant, plain china and a plate of buttered toast. She agreed politely as she took in the delights of the tea table between them. A muffin dish, polished silver glinting in the firelight, wedges of buttered toast spread with what looked like anchovy paste, a plate of little cakes, another with a chocolate sponge oozing cream and, on a silver tray, a silver teapot and milk jug, flanked by delicate china cups and saucers. She could remember, years ago, her mother sitting beside a similar tea table.

  The doctor, watching her wistful face, said cheerfully, ‘Will you pour, Katherine?’ When she had done so, and they had their muffins on their plates, he asked, ‘Now, tell me, how do you like your new job?’

  ‘Very much. There’s another nursing aide on the ward—Andy—she’s been so kind and patient. Sister’s very stern, but I expect she has to be. Staff Nurse is kind, too—I don’t talk to the student nurses much; I don’t go to meals with them and there’s no time to talk on the ward.’

  ‘Good. You’re not too tired at the end of the day?’

  ‘Just my feet, and they’ll be all right once they’re used to it. I’m really very happy.’

  He passed her the plate of toast and then helped himself. ‘And Mrs Potts has made you comfortable?’

  ‘Oh, yes.’ She painted an exaggerated picture of the comforts of her room, at the same time aware of the subdued splendour of the room they were sitting in. It was low-ceilinged, with panelled walls hung with portraits and furnished with comfortable chairs, and old, beautifully polished furniture. The curtains had been drawn across the lattice windows, and the crimson brocade reflected the soft light from the table lamps scattered around. Well, she wasn’t exactly fibbing, she assured herself, and he would never see her attic, anyway...

  They were eating chocolate cake and laughing together about Joseph and the dogs when Katherine heard Mrs Spooner’s voice in the hall, and a moment later the door opened and Dodie came in.

  She stopped short half-way across the room. ‘Well, well—what a picture of cosy domestic bliss!’ She gave a little trill of laughter, but her voice had a nasty edge to it. She ignored Katherine and went and sat in a chair close to the doctor. ‘Is there any tea left in the pot? I had the absurd notion that you might like to have some company for tea, but I see that you’ve got it already.’

  The doctor had stood up as she went in, but now he sat down again, quite unruffled by the look of fury on her face. ‘Katherine and I have had a delightful walk with the dogs.’ He paused as his housekeeper came in with fresh tea. ‘Any news of your grandparents?’

  ‘Not that I know of.’ Dodie shrugged her shoulders prettily. ‘You know what old people are; I have an idea they’ll be back here again before long. I’ve heard of a marvellous woman who will live with them.’ She glanced at Katherine as though she had just remembered that she was there. ‘Bad luck on you, but you’ve got work, haven’t you?’

  ‘How fortunate,’ observed Dr Fitzroy smoothly, ‘that you’ve got someone lined up, for Katherine is working at the hospital and doing very well...’

  Katherine put down her cup and saucer. ‘I’m very happy there,’ she said to Dodie as she got to her feet. ‘I must go now—thank you for my tea.’

  Dr Fitzroy had got up, too; he went to the door with her and leaving it open followed her into the hall. ‘Did Mrs Spooner take your coat?’ He took it from the housekeeper and helped her on with it. ‘A very pleasant afternoon,’ he told her in his calm way, ‘we must do it again.’

  A remark which Katherine put down to a polite piece of nonsense designed to put her at her ease. It had been a lovely few hours—almost, but not quite spoilt by Dodie.

  Mrs Potts’ kitchen, cosy though it was, seemed something of a let-down after the splendours of the doctor’s drawing-room; Katherine joined in the chatter about Christmas while her thoughts were somewhere else. Was Dodie still at his house, she wondered, or were they spending the evening together, dining and dancing? Mrs Potts, repeating her enquiry as to whether Katherine would be working during the Christmas holiday, wondered why she was so dreamy.

  ‘So sorry,’ Katherine apologised. ‘Yes, I’ll be working on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, but I have Christmas Eve off. I don’t mind at all, though. It isn’t as though I have a family to go to.’

  Mrs Potts, who had heard all about Henry from the doctor, said nothing to this; she liked the doctor and she was sorry for Katherine. ‘Well, I’ll be here,’ she said cheerfully. ‘Miss Kendall goes home, don’t you, dear? But Miss Fish and Mrs Dunster will be here, too. I dare say you’ll have a bit of fun at the hospital, Miss Marsh?’

  ‘Oh, I expect so. Mrs Potts, would you mind very much calling me Katherine?’

  ‘Well, now that you ask, I see no reason why I shouldn’t. What do they call you at the hospital?’

  ‘Oh, Sister always says Miss Marsh, but everyone else calls me Katherine. Some of the patients call me Katie.’

  ‘Very familiar,’ observed Miss Fish severely.

  ‘Not really, they’re only being friendly.’ Miss Fish looked about to argue the point, so Katherine changed the conversation smartly. ‘We have a kind of bran tub for the staff presents on the ward, we each put in something. Has anyone any suggestions as to what I should get?’

  The elder ladies had no hesitation in choosing nice white hankies, and Miss Kendall instantly countered that with lacy tights, while Mrs Potts voted for a nice headscarf.

  None of these really appealed to Katherine; she wandered round the shops the next morning looking for something she would like to have herself. She found it; a little china vase, white, with violets painted on it. There was no price, but there would be no harm in asking.

  She became aware that there was someone standing beside her. ‘Christmas shopping?’ asked Dr Fitzroy, and she nodded for, as usual, her breath had become really erratic at the sight of him. ‘So am I. This, by the way is a young cousin of mine, Edward.’

  She saw that there was someone with him. A much younger man, not much older than herself, with a cheerful face which wasn’t quite good-looking, a shock of brown hair and an engaging grin.

  ‘This is Katherine,’ explained the doctor. ‘She came to my help some weeks ago; she now works at the hospital.’

  Edward shook hands. ‘Nice to meet you. I’m staying over Christmas, perhaps we shall see something of each other.’

  ‘Well, I don’t expect so. I’m working...’

  ‘You can’t be working all the time?’

  She smiled warmly at him. ‘No.’

  ‘Good. So we’ll have an evening out and I’ll tell you my life story.’ He looked at the doctor, standing impassively by. ‘Do you see a lot of each other?’

  Dr Fitzroy and Katherine exchanged a glance. ‘Hardly,’ said the doctor, ‘but I’m sure I can manage to convey any message you might wish to send.’

  ‘I could phone,’ said Edward airily.

  ‘Oh, no, you couldn’t!’ The look of horror on Katherine’s face brought him up short. ‘Sister doesn’t allow phone calls.’

  ‘Old dragon, is she? Just goes to
show what happens to nurses if they stay long enough in hospital.’

  Katherine went pink. ‘Oh, but I’m not a nurse. I’m only an aide; that’s between a ward maid and a new student nurse who doesn’t know anything.’

  Edward was unimpressed. ‘Oh, good, you’ll not get the chance to turn into a dragon.’ He caught the doctor’s glance and added, ‘Oh, all right, Jason, I know you’ve no time to dally.’

  They bade her goodbye, Edward with the declared intention of seeing her again, Dr Fitzroy with grave friendliness.

  She stood there, where they had left her, thinking in a muddled way that it was the greatest of pities that Edward seemed to have taken to her at once, and Dr Fitzroy treated her with an impersonal courtesy which she found most unsatisfactory. She quite forgot about the vase, and wandered along, stopping here and there to appraise some particularly eye-catching garment; eye-catching in the sense that it would attract the doctor’s eye—a piece of nonsense actually, for it would take several weeks’ wages to pay for any one of them.

  The spirit of Christmas was beginning to pervade the ward when she went back on duty the next day. Those patients who weren’t actually flat on their backs were pressed into making paper flowers, paper chains and coloured crepe-paper mats for the bed tables and locker tops. They would be the very devil to keep tidy and clean, observed Andy, but Sister, who considered herself artistic, always got carried away at Christmas.

  ‘Had you ever thought of training as a nurse?’ Andy asked Katherine as they made up empty beds. ‘Me, I’d be no good, haven’t even got O-levels, but I bet you’ve been to a good school.’

  Katherine mitred a corner neatly. ‘Oh, I don’t think I’d do at all. I stayed home with my mother when I left school, and then I went to live with my brother and his wife for two years.’

  ‘What did you do there? General dogsbody?’

  ‘Well, yes, I suppose I was.’

  ‘Then how did you escape, even if it’s hardly a bed of roses here?’

  Katherine explained, and when she had finished Andy said, ‘Lord, what a bit of luck for you! And Dr Fitzroy’s such a duck of a man...’ She caught sight of Katherine’s face and said quickly, ‘Have you been to see your brother since you came here?’

  ‘No, but I thought I’d go on my next days off; just to say hello—I wouldn’t stay.’

  ‘When Bill’s away, you and I will have an afternoon off together if we can fix it.’ Bill was her fiance, a plumber by trade, who occasionally worked away from Salisbury. ‘He’s home for Christmas, and I’ve got Boxing Day off, so I’ll go to his place and then he will come home with me.’

  ‘That’ll be nice.’ Katherine sounded cheerful and thanked heaven that she was working over Christmas. On Christmas Eve she would be free to go into the city and mix with the crowds and feel part of them for a while, and she would be able to go to the midnight service. Everyone said that Christmas on the wards was quite fun...

  The ward was quite busy: irascible old men with bronchitis and heart failure adding to the hazards of hernia repairs, duodenal ulcers and colostomies, and a sprinkling of younger ones with appendicitis, nasty injuries from their work or a car accident. Whether they liked it or not, Sister had them all working on Christmas decorations, so Katherine and Andy were in constant demand to give a hand, for the student nurses were too busy learning from their seniors, and they in turn were too busy with dressings and medicine rounds and all the complicated paraphernalia Katherine only half understood. The week went by with no sign of Dr Fitzroy; he seldom came on to the surgical side, but usually she caught a glimpse of him as she did errands to the various departments. Her days off came round once more and she decided she would pay her brother a visit; it was, after all, almost Christmas, and a season of good will.

  She set off by bus in the afternoon, bearing small gifts and wearing her new coat and a neat corduroy hat to match it. It was a cold day, but the sun shone fitfully, and she was warmed by the knowledge that there was a week’s wages in her purse. Even after paying the rent, there was money over—not much, but more than she had had for a long time.

  She could hear the children shouting and screaming as she went up the garden path and, as she knocked on the door, Joyce’s voice raised in anger. No one came to the door, so she knocked again, and this time Joyce answered it. ‘What do you want?’ she wanted to know snappily. ‘Don’t think you’re coming back!’

  ‘No. I don’t think that. I brought your Christmas presents. May I come in?’

  ‘I suppose so.’ Joyce stood aside for her to go into the hall, and it was at once evident that Mrs Todd hadn’t felt like doing the floors for some time, let alone a little dusting. The sitting-room was in a like state. Katherine itched to get her hands on the hoover and a couple of dusters, but it wasn’t her business any more.

  ‘Well,’ said Joyce, ‘let’s have these presents. I can’t stop to entertain you, I’m busy.’

  ‘Could 1 see the children?’

  Joyce shrugged. ‘If you want to. A girl comes to look after them in the mornings, but I have to see to them when she goes home.’ She shot Katherine a furious look. ‘Thanks to you and your ingratitude.’

  Katherine ignored that; she hadn’t come to quarrel. She said reasonably, ‘They’re in the nursery? I’ll go along...’

  ‘Do. Don’t stay long.’

  They weren’t particularly pleased to see her, but took their presents without thanks and tore off the wrappings. She had been silly to come, reflected Katherine, but all the same she felt sorry for the pair; they looked uncared-for and grubby, although healthy enough. She bade them an unheeded goodbye and went back to Joyce.

  ‘I won’t keep you, Katherine, and there’s no point in you being here; Henry won’t want to see you.’ She studied Katherine’s clothes. ‘Still working, I suppose?’

  ‘Yes.’ She didn’t tell Joyce that she had left the Graingers; she wouldn’t be interested anyway. She had been stupid to come. ‘I hope you all have a happy Christmas,’ she said politely as Joyce urged her towards the door.

  In the brief half-hour she had been indoors, the weather had changed: the sun had gone for good and the wind was biting. There was no bus for an hour and nowhere she could stay. She walked briskly down to the gate, and heard the door slam behind her. She would start walking. Luckily, she was wearing sensible shoes...

  It was several miles until the road she was on joined the main road at Wilton; there would be a good chance of picking up a bus there. She quickened her pace; the sky was lowering and dusk wasn’t far off. She had gone a mile or more when Dr Fitzroy’s Bent-ley passed her, going the other way. He had been driving quite fast and she didn’t think he had seen her. In any case, he was going in the opposite direction. She walked on, thinking about him; indeed, he occupied her thoughts incessantly.

  The Bentley drew up beside her almost without a sound. ‘Hop in quickly, I’m on the wrong side of the road,’ advised the doctor, leaning over to open the door for her. When she was sitting beside him, he asked, ‘Did you miss the bus?’

  She shook her head; it was absurd that now that she was being driven back in comfort the desire to weep was overwhelming. The doctor cast her a swift glance—two tears were trickling down her cheeks.

  He said with brisk friendliness, ‘I’m just going home for tea. Do come and keep me company.’

  She found her voice. ‘You were going the other way.’

  ‘Nothing important.’ He went on cheerfully, ‘How is the work going? Not too much for you? Edward will be at home, which is a good thing, for he intended coming round to see you this evening.’

  Katherine sniffed, blew her prosaic little nose and said, ‘How nice...’

  ‘He’s a good lad,’ observed her companion easily, ‘and looking forward to seeing something of you while he’s here.’

  They were through Wilton and going fast along the road into Salisbury. It was almost dark now, but the first of the evening traffic had hardly got started. The doctor turned
away from the city centre before they reached it, and took a series of small roads which brought him very close to his house. There were lights shining from the ground-floor windows as he stopped the car outside his front door, got out and opened Katherine’s door for her, and by the time they had crossed the pavement Mrs Spooner was waiting for them. Katherine let out a little sigh of contentment as she entered the hall. The house welcomed her, and Edward’s cheerful face peering round the drawing-room door made the welcome even warmer.

  Chapter 6

  Edward crossed the hall, flatteringly pleased to see her, and she had a moment’s regret that he wasn’t Dr Fitzroy, but in such thoughts lay an unhappiness she must avoid at all costs. She returned his exuberant greeting with a warm one of her own, while the doctor stood quietly watching them both.

  ‘Let me have your coat,’ he said softly. ‘Mrs Spooner will bring tea.’

  He let Edward do most of the talking as they had their tea, and presently excused himself on the plea of work, and went away to his study, leaving Edward detailing his life at the London hospital where he was a junior houseman.

  Katherine listened and laughed and wished that the doctor would return. Perversely, when he did, she declared that she would have to dash, but not before accepting Edward’s pressing invitation to have dinner with him on the following evening. What was more, he declared that he would walk back with her to Mrs Potts’ house, so they set off presently, seen on then-way by a strangely avuncular doctor. It was as though he had raised an invisible barrier between them, thought Katherine, walking briskly through the streets beside Edward. There always had been a barrier, she admitted to herself, but now suddenly he had turned into a much older man, prepared to be amused at their youthful chatter, but not wishing to be part of it. And yet he wasn’t old—not even middle-aged...

  Her wandering thoughts ceased abruptly when Edward, who had been rambling on about a nurse on night duty who had caught his fancy, said, ‘Jason’s a splendid chap, isn’t he? A pity if he lets that Dodie get her claws into him. She’s a smasher, I grant you, but sheer poison to a man like him.’