by Betty Neels
She had been back several days when she met Corinna as she went off duty.
‘You’re back,’ said that young lady unnecessarily. ‘How are Marc and Emmie and the baby, and did you do anything exciting while you were there?’
‘They’re all very well. Marc is almost fit again—he has a governess, an awfully nice girl—Tine.’
Corinna, who knew all about Marc, and Tine for that matter, since she had a habit of ringing up her cousin whenever she felt like it, said chattily, ‘You’re off duty? Good. I’ll meet you at the front entrance in twenty minutes and you can tell me all about it. We’ll go to Chiswick and get Breeze to give us supper.’
She saw the look on Caroline’s face and added kindly, ‘It’s all right, Marius lets me use his house when I’m off duty.’ She patted Caroline’s shoulder. ‘Don’t keep me waiting.’
She sailed away and Caroline, watching her go, reflected that it was easy to see that she was Mr van Houben’s cousin; they both had the same air of expecting people to do what they wished and no questions asked. All the same, she went to her room and showered and changed into the navy and white dress and the little jacket, crammed her tired feet into the new sandals and went back to the front entrance. Corinna was already there, talking to one of the housemen, but she bade him a cursory goodbye when she saw Caroline.
‘Are we going by bus or tube?’ asked Caroline.
Corinna had lifted an imperative finger to a passing taxi. ‘I never go on either. If there’s no one with a car I have taxis.’
‘How nice,’ said Caroline rather feebly as they were whisked away from their dreary surroundings across the city to Chiswick, which seemed like another world.
Breeze opened the door to them and admitted them with unsurprised benevolence.
‘We’re dying from hunger,’ declared Corinna the moment they were inside. ‘Do you suppose that Mrs Breeze could find us a sandwich or something?’
Breeze allowed himself a small smile. ‘Allow her half an hour, Miss Corinna; I’m sure she will find you something.’
He led them across the hall to the drawing-room and Caroline, gazing raptly at the charming surroundings, said in surprise, ‘But Mr van Houben has a house in Amsterdam…’
‘Well, of course he has—he has to live somewhere, doesn’t he? Besides, that’s his family home; this place suits him very well when he comes over here, and he comes very often. He has a nice little cottage in Friesland too.’
Corinna went over to the table by the window and examined the bottles and decanters on it. ‘Pale sherry?’ she enquired, and didn’t wait for an answer. ‘I dare say,’ she went on carelessly, ‘if Marius marries he’ll get a small place in the country as well—it would be nice for the children.’ She motioned Caroline to a small velvet armchair and gave her a glass. ‘I wouldn’t mind marrying an Englishman and living over here; on the other hand I know some very nice young men in Holland.’
Caroline sipped her sherry and murmured politely while she looked around her. It was a much smaller house than the one in Amsterdam but it was just as charmingly furnished. She asked, ‘Will you go back to Holland as soon as you’ve finished?’
‘I expect so—my family live in The Hague; I’ve four brothers but they all live away from home, they’re older than I am. Have you brothers and sisters?’
‘No, I live with an aunt.’
‘I dare say you have a lot of friends.’
‘Well,’ said Caroline cautiously, ‘I do know just about everyone in the village. I’ve lived there since I was twelve.’
‘London must seem a bit grim…’
‘Most of the time we’re in the hospital, aren’t we?’
Corinna, who spent most of her free time as far away from the hospital as possible, agreed. She was a good nurse, liked by everyone, and she never failed to pass the various tests with the highest possible marks, but once she was finished she had every intention of going back to The Hague and enjoying herself and then getting married. She was a pretty girl, the somewhat spoilt daughter of wealthy parents, and there were young suitable men enough for her to choose from; her future was pleasant and secure. She was a nice girl and warm-hearted too, and she said now, ‘I daresay Emmie will invite you back to see Marc—they are undyingly grateful to you.’ She added carelessly, ‘Did you see anything of Marius?’
‘Your cousin? Yes, he came several times to see Marc and he was at the hospital when he went in for his tests.’ Caroline had gone rather pink, although she spoke in her usual quiet way, and Corinna gave her a thoughtful look. A pity if this nice quiet little thing had lost her heart to him; Marius, as far as she knew, was immune from romantic encounters of a lasting nature. A pity; he would make a splendid husband…
Breeze appeared in the doorway to say that Mrs Breeze had prepared a supper for them and would they be good enough to go to the dining-room?
‘Thank heaven, I’m famished,’ declared Corinna, and urged Caroline across the hall and into the dining-room.
Breeze hadn’t done things by halves; the table was laid with a crisp linen cloth, sparkling silver and glass, and there was a bowl of early roses at its centre, and Mrs Breeze had conjured up a splendid supper: chicken soup and cheese soufflé with a salad and ice cream to round their meal off.
‘Won’t Mr van Houben mind?’ asked Caroline, drinking coffee in the drawing-room afterwards.
‘Of course not—I’m his cousin, I can come and go as I please—I come here for my days off and when he comes over to England he takes me out.’ She said suddenly, ‘Do you like him, Caroline?’
A question that Caroline didn’t want to answer. ‘He’s very clever, isn’t he? I don’t—I don’t really know him; I mean, you know how it is at the hospital, the consultants and registrars and those sort of people don’t have anything to do with the junior nurses.’
Corinna poured more coffee. ‘Now tell me all about Marc when you got him home and don’t miss a thing—he is such a darling, isn’t he? So is the baby…’
Caroline answered as best she could, recounting in great detail the day to day activities at the van Houbens’. It was almost ten o’clock when Corinna said, ‘Well, I suppose we must go back—I’ll ask Breeze to get us a taxi.’
Parting company in the nurses’ home, Caroline said, ‘Thank you for asking me to supper, I enjoyed it very much.’
Corinna smiled. ‘Good, so did I, and it was nice to catch up on the news. Goodnight, Caroline.’
Caroline had a bath and went to bed but Corinna went back to the hall of the nurses’ home where there was a telephone. No one was supposed to use it after ten o’clock, but that had never bothered her. She made herself comfortable on a stool taken from Sister’s office and dialled a number, and when she said who she was, ‘You should be in bed,’ replied her cousin Marius. ‘I suppose you’re short of money or worse—fallen in love again.’
‘Don’t be horrid.’ They were speaking Dutch and she made no attempt to lower her voice for fear of waking anyone and them coming to see what she was doing. ‘Guess who spent the evening in Chiswick with me…’
‘My dear girl, I’ve had a hard day and I’m beyond guessing anything.’
‘Caroline! Remember her—she looked after Marc.’
‘Of course I remember her, she’s only been gone a week.’ He paused. ‘She isn’t ill?’
‘Of course not—she was off duty at the same time as I was and it was an opportunity to hear about Marc. She’s a dear creature, isn’t she
, Marius?’
‘Marc was fond of her. It was largely due to her that he has made such a good recovery. Whether she is a dear creature or not I do not know.’
‘Don’t you like her?’
‘My dear Corinna, I am quite indifferent to her, and now shall we say goodnight? I’ve a heavy day again tomorrow.’
‘Poor Marius—so have I—up with the lark and run off my feet. Wel te rusten.’
She went back to her room, smiling angelically at one of the older sisters who had opened her door and was looking suspicious. ‘Make a little less noise,’ snapped that lady, and closed the door again.
Corinna took her time getting ready for bed while she went over the evening. Caroline had blushed when she had mentioned Marius and she hadn’t said whether she liked him or not—and Marius had been equally evasive. She was fond of her cousin and had long ago decided that he should find himself a wife; she knew all about his earlier love-affair but that was years ago, and she had and so had his family, produced suitable young women from time to time in the hope that he would fall in love with one of them. He enjoyed their company, took them out—theatres and dinners and dancing—but he was still heart-whole. Could it possibly be, thought Corinna as she at last settled herself into bed, that they liked each other? A most unlikely pair, but Caroline was the kind of girl who would make a good wife, loving and serene and sensible and on occasion not afraid to speak her mind. Marius needed someone like that to go home to each evening. And soon, she thought sleepily, before he becomes a confirmed bachelor.
She and Caroline saw little of each other for almost a week; they were on different wards and Corinna was senior, with her own circle of friends and fully occupied leisure time. When Marius telephoned to say that he would be coming over to England in a couple of days, she had no chance to tell Caroline, and even if she had she wouldn’t have said anything. If Marius wanted to see Caroline he could do so easily enough, but if he was as uninterested as he said he was then it would be kinder to Caroline if she knew nothing about his coming.
So when he walked on to the children’s ward with Sister Crump two mornings later Caroline was taken by surprise. She had just come out of the sluice-room and turned round and went straight back in again, hoping that she hadn’t been seen. She didn’t think he would be in the ward long; it wasn’t as though he did a round like Mr Spence. He had come to check on the small girl with the terrible cleft palate and double hare lip who would need careful anaesthetising; she should have thought of that.
She began to clean the already clean sink and a student nurse, only just on the ward put her head around the door.
‘Sister Crump wants you,’ she hissed. ‘She’s in the ward.’
With the greatest reluctance Caroline followed her, shut the sluice-room door carefully behind her and went to where Sister Crump and Mr van Houben were standing in the middle of the ward.
He looked her over carefully. ‘Good morning, Nurse. You expressed the doubt that I would remember you. You see that I have. Sister Crump tells me that you have settled down again. I have just been telling her how very grateful my sister-in-law is for the care you gave little Marc.’ He turned to Sister Crump. ‘Perhaps we might have Nurse to special this little girl I’ve come to see—Shirley, isn’t it? A difficult case which will need all our care and attention.’
‘Mr Spence suggested that too; as far as I’m concerned, sir, it seems a good idea. Shirley will need all the patience there is for a week or so.’
Mr van Houben allowed his eyes to rest on Caroline, standing there outwardly meek and inwardly, he felt sure, boiling over because they were deciding everything without so much as a token request for her services.
‘Good, good,’ he said in an absent-minded manner. ‘Then that’s settled.’ It had been settled between Mr Spence and himself previously—indeed it was he who had suggested it in the first place. Finally he added, ‘We shall be obliged to Nurse—it may mean awkward duty hours and so on. You have a reliable night nurse, Sister?’
Sister Crump gave him a look implying that all her nurses were reliable.
‘The child’s going to Theatre at four o’clock. If you want Nurse Frisby to go with her, she had better go off duty…when are you off today, Nurse?’
‘Five o’clock, Sister.’ And she had planned a trip to a West End cinema with several of her friends.
‘Change with Nurse Foster and go off duty at midday. We’ll worry about tomorrow when we get to it.’
‘Nothing planned for this evening?’ asked Mr van Houben casually.
‘Yes.’ She was aware of Sister Crump’s annoyance. ‘Yes, sir, but it doesn’t matter in the least.’
It didn’t. They had met again—he was standing in front of her and he’d remembered her. The day was suddenly splendid; she would, if necessary, stay all night and all day with Shirley if he asked her to. Her grey eyes shone at the thought so that Mr van Houben, seeing their sparkle, decided that he had been mistaken in thinking of her as a plain girl.
‘Shall we take a look at Shirley?’ he asked, and Sister Crump sent Caroline back to see to the ten o’clock feeds. Which meant that she could think about him while she bottle-fed the three babies one after the other.
She went off duty punctually, leaving a cross Madge Foster to do her work, and during the somewhat lengthy walk through the hospital to the nurses’ home had time to lose some of her euphoria. Just because Mr van Houben had turned up, she had no reason to get excited. He hadn’t come to see her, and in a way it was a pity that they had met again, for she had been doing her best for ages to forget him. Not very successfully, but with practice it would probably be easier. She suited the action to the thought and started to plan her few hours of freedom. Never mind her dinner, she would get a sandwich and a cup of coffee somewhere, but first she would take a bus away from the hospital. Victoria Park was the nearest green space she could think of. She ran down the last of the stairs and almost overbalanced against Mr van Houben’s waistcoat.
He set her back on her feet. ‘Ten minutes,’ he told her. ‘I’ll be outside with the car, don’t keep me waiting.’
She gaped at him, her gentle mouth open. ‘Ten minutes—what do you mean? Outside—why?’
‘Don’t argue, there’s a good girl. Just do as I say. I have so many messages for you from Emmie and Marc and Tine, and neither of us has much time.’
Rather to her own surprise she heard herself say, ‘Very well, I’ll be as quick as I can,’ and she sped away, racing through the nurses’ home to her room and almost upsetting Sister on the way.
‘Late for a date?’ asked that kindly lady, dusting herself down while Caroline apologised.
‘Yes—no, not yet, but I shall be. So sorry, Sister.’
It would have to be the navy and white dress and the little jacket, she decided as she tore out of her uniform, found stockings and sandals, made up her face in a sketchy fashion and pinned her hair into the French pleat. Nothing startling, she decided, peering into the small looking-glass, but it would have to do. Only a man would expect a girl to get ready to go out in ten minutes.
It had taken her a little longer than that but when she went outside into the forecourt he opened the car door and stuffed her in without a word. ‘We can talk over lunch,’ he told her, getting in beside her and driving away without fuss, into the stream of midday traffic, leaving the small houses standing in red-brick rows and the rather shabby little shops, crossing the city until they reached Chi
swick.
As he stopped Caroline said, ‘Oh—I came here with your cousin Corinna the other evening—she wanted to know about Marc and we happened to meet as we were going off duty.’
‘It’s her second home while she’s over here.’ He had got out and paused to open her door and Breeze was standing by the open front door ready to admit them.
‘We’re both hungry, Breeze,’ said Mr van Houben, ‘but give us ten minutes for a drink, will you?’
He sat her down in the drawing-room by the open window. The garden behind the house was small but full of colour and there were birds singing in the birch trees at its end. It seemed a thousand miles away from the hospital.
‘Sherry?’ he asked. ‘Or white wine?’
She chose the sherry, and when he sat down in a large wing chair near her a ginger cat came in from the garden and sat down between them, washing himself.
‘Blossom,’ said Mr van Houben. ‘Mrs Breeze’s devoted companion, but he prefers the drawing-room if he can get in there.’ He glanced at her with a smile. ‘Your aunt has a cat—Theobald? A handsome beast.’
Blossom got up and jumped on to Caroline’s lap and she said, ‘Blossom is handsome too,’ and was racking her brains as to what to say next when Breeze came to tell them that lunch was served.
Mr van Houben so far hadn’t mentioned Marc or anyone else she had met in Holland, and it seemed that he didn’t intend to for the moment, for he kept up a flow of small talk while they ate potted shrimps, lamb cutlets with creamed potatoes and tiny peas and carrots and then a glazed apple tart with whipped cream. Caroline, who had been very hungry, enjoyed every morsel.
‘I think your Mrs Breeze must be a marvellous cook.’
‘Oh, indeed she is.’
‘Well, I do hope you tell her so from time to time, though I expect you do. It’s nice to be appreciated.’ She blushed then because it sounded as though she was asking to be appreciated too, for nursing Marc, and he watched the colour creep into her cheeks with amusement tinged with concern because she was upset.