When Two Paths Meet

by Neels, Betty

  She went to the medical wards, hopeful that she might see Dr Fitzroy, but he wasn’t there. Common sense had told her that he wouldn’t be. She went rather shyly round the ward, accepted a glass of something from a friendly nurse, and went along to the orthopaedic wards where she exchanged greetings with the numerous owners of broken limbs, and drank another glass of something in Sister’s office. Then she made her way to ENT, where she ate a mince pie, before opening the swing doors into the children’s ward.

  She had no idea what she had been drinking, but whatever she had been offered mixed into a pleasant glow in her insides, making her feel remarkably carefree. She started down the ward, another mince pie in her hand, stopping to talk to the toddlers in their cots. She was at the end when she saw Dr Fitzroy sitting on one of the small beds, a baby tucked under one arm.

  With sorrowful hindsight, much later, Katherine realised that it was the variety of drinks which had loosened her tongue so deplorably, but at that moment she didn’t give it much thought. She advanced and said happily, ‘Oh, hello, Jason. Shouldn’t you be in bed?’

  She smiled widely at him and he laughed a little, his eyes gleaming with amusement. ‘Oh, but I had to carve the turkey, you know.’ He upended the baby so that it faced her. ‘See who this is? Our foundling, no less. Growing up into a splendid lad.’

  She sat down beside him and took the baby from him. ‘He’s gorgeous. Has he been christened?’

  ‘Oh, yes—Noel. It couldn’t be anything else, could it?’

  She tickled the baby under its chin and it smiled widely and windily. ‘Did anyone find out who is the mother?’

  ‘No, I’m afraid not.’ He took the baby and put him tidily into his cot. ‘Are you enjoying your Christmas?’

  ‘Oh, yes, thank you, Dr Fitzroy.’

  ‘You called me Jason. I rather liked that.’

  She went very pink. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I can’t think why...that is, I’ve been given quite a lot to drink...so silly of me.’ She stood up quickly and went on breathlessly, ‘I hope you have a lovely evening when you get home! I must go, Sister said an hour.’

  She went quickly down the ward and out of the doors at the far end, and he watched her small, neat figure dwindling. Almost pretty, he reflected, with those eyes, and now she had filled out with Mrs Potts’ wholesome cooking.

  It had been a long day, reflected Katherine, going back home through the snow, but she had enjoyed it, all except that last bit when she had met Dr Fitzroy. What a good thing she almost never saw him these days!

  Mrs Potts was waiting for her; Miss Fish and Mrs Dunster had retired to their rooms, Christmas or no Christmas, but her landlady had set the table in the kitchen with a holly centrepiece and crackers, and within ten minutes had produced roast turkey and all the trimmings, urged Katherine to sit down and eat it, and sat down opposite to her. ‘I reckon you had a busy day,’ she invited, and listened while Katherine, between mouthfuls, told of her doings.

  ‘And you’re on duty again tomorrow? I call it a shame...’

  ‘I don’t mind a bit, Mrs Potts. It isn’t as though I have anywhere to go, and the next day I’m free, anyway.’

  She started on her pudding, suddenly sleepy, so that she was glad when Mrs Potts offered her a cup of coffee. ‘When you’ve finished, you can have a bath and jump right into bed,’ she told her comfortably.

  Which was exactly what Katherine did, to fall asleep at once and dreamlessly.

  She hadn’t expected to get any off duty the next day, so it came as a pleasant surprise when, just after four o’clock, after the last of the visitors who had come for Boxing Day tea on the wards had gone, she was told by Sister that she might go off for the evening. ‘You have worked very well,’ conceded that lady, ‘and it is your day off tomorrow.’ She nodded dismissal and Katherine skipped away, intent on getting out of the hospital before some disastrous happening should prevent her leaving.

  Usually she came and went through the car park at the back of the hospital and a series of small streets, but there would be little traffic and the main streets were bright with decorations and lights, a small sop to her unconscious wish to be part of the Christmas scene. She pushed the heavy door open and crossed the courtyard, packed with cars, and made for the street, planning her day off as she went. There was no point in getting up too early, so she would enjoy the rare pleasure of breakfast in bed and then go for a walk. She reviewed the areas as far away from Dr Fitzroy’s house as possible, and decided that she might walk to Alderbury, three miles away to the south-east of Salisbury, remembering going there years ago when her father was alive. There was an inn there, she would treat herself to a snack lunch and walk back to have her tea by the fire... She hadn’t noticed Dr Fitzroy’s car creep up beside her and stop.

  He wound down the window. ‘Off duty? So am I— hop in and come and have some tea.’ He looked at her tired face. ‘You can curl up by the fire and go to sleep if you want to.’ He had leant across and opened the door for her, and with only the faintest of objections she got in beside him. To be with him, even for half an hour, would be heaven, made even more heavenly by the prospect of tea. She said in her calm little voice, ‘Do you have to work on Boxing Day, too?’

  ‘Only when I need to—I shall make up for it by having a day off tomorrow. Edward will be leaving in a few days; if the weather’s good I think I might drive him over to Stourhead, it should be looking splendid in the snow.’

  ‘Does he plan to stay in London?’

  ‘Only until such time as he needs to get some experience. He wants to be a GP eventually, in this part of the world.’

  The doctor drew up in front of his house and got out to help her plough through the snow which the wind had piled into small drifts along the pavement. He unlocked his front door and urged her inside to pleasant warmth and comfort and Edward’s pleased welcome, dogs barking and Mrs Spooner coming silently to lead Katherine away to tidy herself.

  They had tea round the fire, muffins and rich fruit- cake and featherlight scones with butter, while Edward talked. He was a great talker, and an amusing one, too; the doctor sat in his huge chair, the dogs at his feet, and encouraged Edward gently so that presently Katherine was laughing at his outrageous stories and feeling very much at her ease.

  A happy state of affairs which wasn’t to last. Katherine, invited to go to Stourhead on the following day, had just said a breathless, delighted ‘yes’ when Dodie joined them.

  She made a delightful picture when she paused in the open doorway. ‘I crept in without bothering Mrs Spooner—you really should lock your door, Jason...’ She paused as her eyes alighted on Katherine. She turned a shoulder to her without speaking, and addressed the doctor.

  ‘I’m sorry, darling, I’ve been persuaded to go with the Crofts to Winchester for lunch, but will you come and fetch me afterwards? We could go out to dinner...’ She smiled beguilingly. ‘Naughty me to stand you up—I know I did promise to keep tomorrow free.’

  The doctor spoke blandly, without any trace of annoyance. ‘Never mind, Dodie, as it happens I’m taking Edward and Katherine over to Stourhead. It’s ideal weather for a walk there, and the dogs need a good run.’

  Her beautiful eyes narrowed. ‘Supposing I had refused the Crofts?’

  ‘Then you could have come, too—a pleasant foursome. You can always change your mind.’

  ‘I can think of nothing more dreary then plodding round Stourhead at this time of the year.’ She was in a real temper now, and Katherine looked at the doctor to see what he would do.

  Nothing. He looked positively placid, and after a few fuming moments Dodie changed her tactics. ‘Well, darling, let’s go to town at the weekend and see a show and dance somewhere. I’ve quite made up my mind—I’ve got a gorgeous dress I’m simply longing to wear.’

  ‘Can’t be done, I’m afraid. I’ve two consultations on Saturday, and there’s a committee meeting on Sunday morning.’

  ‘In that case, there’s no point in staying
here listening to your excuses. I’ve no doubt you’ll find amusement enough while I’m away.’

  Her smouldering eyes turned to Katherine, still sitting there, trying to look as though she was miles away.

  ‘You know, you should do something about your make-up and go to a decent hairdresser. You’re a complete nonentity!’

  She swept from the room before anyone could speak.

  The silence which followed seemed like an eternity to Katherine although it was barely a couple of minutes. ‘I’m sorry about that, Katherine,’ said the doctor. ‘Dodie gets quite worked up, and says things she doesn’t mean.’

  Edward joined in, anxious to make light of Dodie’s rudeness. ‘Always was a nasty, rude child,’ he observed. ‘I suppose I’ve known her for so long that we don’t bother overmuch.’

  Katherine looked at their concerned faces. ‘It’s perfectly all right,’ she said to them calmly. ‘Dodie was disappointed, and it made her cross. And I’ve never had any pretensions to good looks. She’s quite right, I dare say I could do a lot by way of improvement. It might be a good New Year’s resolution.’

  ‘You’re perfectly all right as you are,’ declared the doctor, which perhaps was an unfortunate remark to make.

  ‘Beyond help,’ reflected Katherine ruefully. All the same, it would be rather fun to go to a beauty salon and have a professional make-up and her hair done elegantly—perhaps tinted...

  ‘What are you brooding about?’ Edward wanted to know.

  ‘I was wondering,’ she said composedly, ‘if it might be a good idea to have my hair tinted?’

  ‘God forbid!’ exploded the doctor, so sharply that she looked at him in surprise.

  ‘It wouldn’t suit you,’ he said hastily. He was looking remote and saying little; he probably had plans for his evening and wanted her gone.

  She got to her feet, saying, ‘I really must go— thank you for a lovely tea...’

  The two men were standing, one each side of her. ‘If you would stay for dinner, we might have a game of poker,’ suggested the doctor to her surprise.

  ‘But I don’t know how to play.’

  ‘All the better! Edward and I will enjoy teaching you...’ He didn’t wait for her to agree, but reached for the phone. ‘I’ll let Mrs Potts know.’

  Rather high-handed, thought Katherine, agog with delight at the thought of an evening spent in his company, and Edward’s, of course.

  Mrs Spooner came to take away the tea things, received the news that Katherine would be spending the evening, set a tray of drinks ready and went away again, and the three of them settled down to the intricacies of poker. Katherine picked it up quickly, and did so well that Edward remarked, ‘You wouldn’t know to look at her that Katherine was a gambler at heart, would you?’

  ‘Appearances can be deceptive,’ agreed the doctor gravely, ‘and sometimes a gamble is worth risking.’

  They had dinner presently; Mrs Spooner’s homemade chicken soup, Dover sole and fluffy baked potatoes swimming in butter, and a trifle the like of which Katherine hadn’t seen, let alone eaten, for many years. Edward wanted to play poker again when they had had their coffee, but she had no wish to outstay her welcome. She was driven back by the doctor, who made no effort to keep her. He wished her a brisk goodnight on Mrs Potts’ doorstep.

  ‘We’ll fetch you about eleven o’clock,’ he said as he put her key in the lock. ‘Wear sensible shoes.’

  All her shoes were sensible, but there was no point in saying so. She wished him goodnight, thanked him for her pleasant evening and went indoors. Mrs Potts was waiting for her.

  ‘Now, what do you think of that?’ she wanted to know. ‘Having a lovely evening with the doctor and that Mr Edward! You got a bit of Christmas, after all.’

  Katherine, a kind girl, could see that Mrs Potts was bored with her own company; she sat down and accepted a cup of tea and gave a blow-by-blow account of her evening. ‘And I’m going to Stourhead tomorrow,’ she finished as she bade her landlady goodnight and danced up to her attic.

  Chapter 7

  Katherine woke early, and lay for a while debating with herself what she should wear. She hadn’t much choice, but she regretfully ruled out the new dress and her hat; both would look silly at Stourhead. She wished that she had good leather boots, well-cut slacks and a new quilted jacket, but she hadn’t. While she ate her breakfast, she puzzled over the problem, counted the money in her purse, tidied her room and went out. Her shoes were low-heeled lace-ups and sensible enough, her slacks were old, but she was a neat girl and they looked well-cared for. Her head buzzing with possibilities, she went to shop. Ten minutes later she came out again, having laid out her money on a woolly cap, gloves and a scarf in holly-berry-red. Her slacks and quilted jacket were in a serviceable dark blue, and she had prudently added thick woollen knee socks to her purchases. She hurried back to try on everything, and the result pleased her well enough; the cap and scarf certainly did a lot to disguise the shabbiness of her slacks and jacket.

  She sat down to wait, wondering if they would return before lunch, and decided that it would be more than likely. An hour’s brisk walk round the lake would take them to one o’clock, if you counted in the driving to and fro. She began to plan her afternoon, anxious to make the most of her day off.

  She didn’t get very far with this, for Mrs Potts called up to say that the doctor was waiting for her. She ran downstairs and felt a faint disappointment that it was Edward standing in the hall and not Jason. And she must stop thinking of him as Jason...

  Edward greeted her with a friendly warmth and the remark that he was glad to see that, unlike some girls he knew, she was sensibly dressed for outdoor exercise. They called goodbye to Mrs Potts and went out to the car, to find the doctor sitting behind the wheel, looking placid.

  ‘You’d both better get in the back—that’s if you don’t mind the dogs!’ His eyes swept over Katherine and he added, ‘Good—you’re sensibly turned out.’ This remark did nothing for her ego, although upon reflection she supposed that she might take it as a compliment of a sort.

  Edward was in fine form, talking nonsense to make her laugh, while the dogs lolled over their feet; but the doctor had little to say, which wasn’t surprising really, since the road, although cleared of snow, was icy. But they could drive the whole way on good roads, only for the last mile or so would the snow still be lying. They stopped at Fovant, a village halfway between Salisbury and Shaftesbury, and had coffee at the pub there, and then they drove on again. The sun had struggled through the clouds, and the snow sparkled around them, deep and untouched on the hills, turning the cottages alongside the road into fairy-tale dwellings.

  They went out of Shaftesbury on the Gillingham road, and found that it had been more or less cleared, but when they turned off for Stourhead the country lane was packed with snow and the doctor slowed down, going past the row of cottages at the start of the small village, then down the hill towards the entrance to the park, to turn into the yard of the Spread Eagle Inn. He stopped and turned to look at Edward and Katherine.

  ‘Walk first?’ he asked. ‘That should bring us nicely to one o’clock or thereabouts; the bar will be open until two, so we have plenty of time.’

  They all got out and the dogs were put on their leads. ‘See about the tickets, will you, Edward?’ The doctor was busy with the dogs. ‘We’ll follow you.’

  He took his time putting the dogs on a double lead, and Edward had gone through the gate to the little rustic kiosk where he could get tickets before they were ready to follow him. ‘You like Edward?’ The doctor’s voice was casual.

  ‘Oh, yes—very much—I wish my brother were half such fun, but of course he’s a lot older. Thirty-six.’

  ‘The same as myself,’ observed the doctor. Katherine gave an agitated little skip beside him and went the colour of her knitted cap. ‘Oh, I didn’t mean— that is, you don’t seem old at all...’

  ‘But past my first exuberant youth? Edward is a mere twenty-
four.’

  ‘Yes, he told me.’

  ‘He will be down again for the odd weekend, so you will be able to see something of each other.’

  ‘That will be nice,’ Katherine said politely, and wished they they would talk about someone else—the doctor, for instance. She cast about in her head for the best way of introducing this enthralling subject, but by then they had caught up with Edward.

  He tucked an arm into hers. ‘I say, this is a super spot! I’ve not been during the winter, I had no idea that it was so magnificent. We ought to have brought some bread for the ducks.’

  I have—it’s in my pocket,’ said Katherine, and smiled at the doctor, who gave her a thoughtful look and didn’t smile at all.

  They ploughed through the snow, exchanging rather smug greetings with the few people they met, and caught brief snatches of, ‘A splendid day to be outdoors,’ and ‘Have you seen the grotto?’ or, even more frequently, ‘They don’t know what they are missing.’

  Katherine, walking prudently in the doctor’s size twelve footsteps in order to keep her feet as dry as possible, glowed with happiness; never mind tomorrow or the day after, she might not see him for days, even weeks, but just at the moment here he was within inches of her. She listened to Edward’s voice, talking of this and that, and answered him light-heartedly and laughed a great deal. By the time they were half-way round the lake, with a brief stop at Diana’s Temple, she was as warm as toast; the cold had put colour into her cheeks and her eyes sparkled so that she was almost pretty. The doctor, pausing from time to time, glanced at her, still with a thoughtful look which she didn’t notice, and when they got to the winding stone steps leading to the grotto he handed the dogs to Edward. ‘You go ahead. I’ll give Katherine a hand, it may be slippery.’

  As indeed it was. She slithered down with the doctor’s hand firm under her elbow, as much agitated by his nearness as the icy steps. At the bottom he released her, and she went to look at Neptune and then the spring of almost freezing water. It was very cold, and the cobbled floor was slippery, but the view from the rough-hewn openings in the grotto’s walls was well worth it. They came out into the open air again, and a watery, weak sun shone upon them. Ten minutes more and they would be back where they had started from. Katherine, who would have liked to have gone on walking for ever with the doctor, sighed gently.