by Betty Neels
She watched his vast back disappear down the corridor and hoped that tot ziens meant something nice like `lovely to see you'. He had been rather businesslike, but probably he had his mind on his work...
She sat down at the breakfast-table, her mind full of all the things she had to do before she left, and the first one was to tell everyone at the table...
`I'm leaving in four days' time,' she announced during a pause in the talk, and, when they all looked at her in astonishment, hurried on, `I didn't know until just now-it's been arranged specially. I'm going to marry Professor van Taak ter Wijsma and I'm going over to Holland to meet his family.'
The chorus of ohs and aahs was very gratifying; she was well liked, and only Gill looked disappointed, although she brightened presently. `When you're married you can invite me to stay; there must be lots of people like him out there.'
Everyone laughed and then fell to congratulating Sophie and asking questions. She had to say that she didn't know to most of them. She wasn't even sure where Rijk was, only that he would be waiting for her when he had said.
There was so much to arrange; Mabel would have to be taken home while she was away, and she supposed that she would go home herself when they came back from visiting Rijk's home in Holland, and that would mean telling Miss Phipps. Unable to face that lady's curiosity, she stopped at a phone box on the way back to her flatlet and rang her mother.
Her parent's voice sounded pleased. `I-your father too-think that you will be very happy; is there anything that you want me to do? It's rather short notice.'
`My passport-and would you just be a dear and look after Mabel? I've no idea where Rijk is, only that he said he'd see me on the day I leave. I'm leaving in four days' time. It's all a bit sudden, but he seems to have arranged things.'
`You're happy, love?T
'Yes, Mother. I'm a bit scared of meeting his family-all those sisters... Supposing they don't like me?"
'You're marrying Rijk, love, not his sisters. I'm sure it will be all right.'
Her mother's voice was reassuring.
She had very little time to make plans; the junior night sister was to take over from her and Staff Nurse Pitt was to be made junior night sister in her place. The three of them had been working together for a year or two, so there was little need to explain things to them. Sophie rushed through an inventory with one of the office sisters, staying behind after breakfast and going back to her room long after she should have been in bed, to find an indignant Mabel waiting for her and an inquisitive Miss Phipps, still unaware of her impending departure. Sophie, falling into bed, stayed awake long enough to decide that since Rijk was arranging everything with such speed he could deal with her landlady too.
He was waiting for her after her last night on duty. She had been and paid a last visit to Matron's office, said goodbye to her friends and also to Peter Small and Tim and the porters, and now, burdened by various farewell gifts, she went through the hospital doors for the last time.
The professor got out of his car and came to meet her. He tookk her packages and put them in the car and asked, `What do you want to do first? We will be going over on the night ferry tomorrow; would it be a good idea if we go to your room and, while you collect Mabel and whatever you need, I'll see to Miss Phipps? I'll keep your room for a week or so so that when we get back you can come and pack up the rest of your things. That will give you the rest of today to sleep and put a few things in a case. I'll come for you tomorrow about six o'clock; we're going from Harwich...'
`You've thought of everything... How long will we be in Holland?"
'A week-I have to go to Leeds for a couple of days and then Athens. I'll bring you back here first; you'll want to be home for Christmas. I'm not sure how long I shall be there, but I'll come as soon as I can...'
'You'll be there for Christmas?"
'I rather think so.' He popped her into the car. `But let us get you settled first before we discuss that.'
He was as good as his word and so Sophie, coming downstairs half an hour later with a hastily packed case and Mabel in her basket, found Miss Phipps waiting in the hall. The professor took her case from her and went out to the car and Miss Phipps said excitedly, `Oh, my goodness, Sister, dear, what a romantic surprise-whoever would have thought it? Though I must say I did wonder... And don't worry about your flatlet; I'll keep it locked until you come back to get the rest of your things.' Her wig slipped a little to one side in her excitement. `I don't know when I've had such a thrill.'
Sophie murmured suitably, assured her landlady that she would be back within a week or so, and bade her goodbye.
`You'll make a lovely bride,' breathed Miss Phipps as Sophie went out to the car.
The professor was leaning against the gate, looking relaxed. He was a man, Sophie reflected, who seemed to make himself comfortable wherever he was. He looked as though he hadn't an anxiety in the world. The thought reminded her that she hadn't either. She got into the car and he shut the door and got in beside her, glancing at his watch. `Your mother said she would have coffee ready at eleven o'clock.' He turned to smile at her then and she thought how pleasant it was to feel so at ease with someone.
At the same time it struck her that she was being swept along by his well laid plans even though never once had they caused her inconvenience or given her reason to grumble.
`Have you been up all night again?' she asked him sharply.
He slowed the Bentley at the traffic lights and glanced at her, smiling a little. `You sound very wifely. I slept on the ferry.'
`I didn't mean to nag...'
`If that is nagging I rather liked it.'
Her mother was waiting for them, with coffee on the table and a large newly baked cake, and ten minutes later with Mabel sitting between the dogs, Mercury and Montgomery, before the Aga, they were sitting around the kitchen table.
`You'll stay for lunch?' asked Mrs Blount. `I've one or two things to see to, Mrs Blount.
I'll be here tomorrow evening to fetch
Sophie-we're going over on the Harwich
ferry and that will give me all day...'
`You couldn't spend Christmas with us?"
'I would have liked that. I shall be in Greece, although I shall do my best to get back to my home even if only for a day.'
`You poor man,' said Mrs Blount, and meant it.
He went presently, saying all the right things to her and giving Sophie a quick, almost brotherly kiss as he went.
`You are happy about marrying Rijk?' asked her mother as they went back indoors.
`We're not in love or anything like that, Mother. It's just that we... He wants a wife and we get on very well together and I do like him very much.' Sophie gave her mother a worried look. 'Rijk says that a good marriage depends on friendship and liking and that just falling in love isn't enough.' She filled their coffee-mugs again and sat down at the table. `I've been afraid of falling in love ever since...'
`Yes, dear, I understand. As long as you aren't still in love-it is a long time ago.'
`I told Rijk I can't remember his face or anything about him, but I remember how I felt. I've been so careful to avoid getting too friendly with any of the men I've met. Somehow Rijk is different... I'm not explaining very well, am I?'
`No need, Sophie, dear. It seems to me that you are ideally suited to each other. Rijk is old and wise enough to know what he wants and so are you. I am quite sure that you will be happy together.'
Mrs Blount gave her daughter a loving look. The dear girl had no idea; it was a good thing that the professor was a man of patience and determination and that he had the ability to hide his feelings so successfully. Once they were married he would doubtless set about the task of making Sophie fall in love with him. She nodded her head and smiled, and Sophie, looking up, asked what was amusing her.
`I was thinking about a really splendid hat for your wedding, dear,' said her mother guilelessly. `And, talking of hats, if you are not too tired, shall we go up
stairs and look through your wardrobe? Pick out what you want to take with you and I'll get it pressed.'
A good deal of the rest of the day was taken up with the knotty problem of what to wear. Her Jaeger suit, Sophie decided; she could travel in it and it would look right during the day with a handful of blouses. A short dress for the evening-a rich mulberry silk, very plain with long sleeves and a straight skirt. And upon due reflection she added a midnight-blue velvet dress with a long skirt, very full, tiny sleeves and a low neckline.
`Take that jersey dress as well,' suggested her mother, so she added still another garment, dark green this time with a cowl neckline and a pleated skirt.
`It's bound to rain or snow or something,' said Sophie, and folded a quilted jacket with a hood, adding sensible shoes, thick gloves and a woolly cap, with the vague idea that Friesland sounded as though it might be cold in winter.
'I'll pack tomorrow,' she told her mother. `Will Father be home for lunch?"
'Yes, dear, and this afternoon shouldn't you have a nap?'
She wasn't at all sleepy, Sophie decided, obediently curling up on her bed that afternoon; there was so much to think about. The next thing she knew was her mother's hand on her shoulder.
`A cup of tea, love, and supper will be about half an hour.'
She went to bed rather early, her hair washed, her face anointed with a cream guaranteed to erase all lines and wrinkles, determined to look her best for Rijk's family. It was to be hoped, she thought sleepily, that not all the five sisters would be there. And his brothers-would they be there too?
She fell asleep uneasily, suddenly beset by doubts.
There was no time for doubts the next day; there was the packing to do, the dogs to take for a walk, a last-minute anxious inspection of her handbag, and her father to drive to a nearby farm to attend a cow calving with difficulty. They got back home in time for tea and then it was time for her to go upstairs and dress for the journey. Rijk had said that he would come in the early evening, and she knew that the ferry sailed before midnight. The drive to Harwich wouldn't take much more than an hour, and her mother had supper ready.
He arrived while she was still in her room, studying her lovely face in the looking-glass, anxious that she should look her best, and, hearing the car and the murmur of voices in the hall, she hurried downstairs to find him, his overcoat off, sitting with her father. He got up as she went into the room and came to take her hand and give her a light kiss.
`I see that you are ready,' he observed. `Your mother has kindly invited me to share your supper-we don't need to leave for an hour or so.'
`I'll go and help her,' said Sophie, suddenly anxious to be gone when only a few moments earlier she had been equally anxious to see him again. It was silly to feel shy with him; she supposed it was because she was excited about going to Holland. She joined her mother in the kitchen and carried plates of hot sausage rolls, jacket potatoes, mince pies and toasted sandwiches into the dining-room. There was coffee too and beer for the men, although the professor shook his head regretfully over that, at the same time embarking on a discussion with Mr Blount concerning the merits of various beers. Sophie, while glad that her father and Rijk got on so well together, couldn't help feeling a faint resentment at the professor's matter-offact manner towards her. After all, they were going to be married, weren't they? Surely he could show a little more interest in his future wife? Upon reflection, she had to admit that their marriage wasn't quite the romantic affair everyone, even Matron, had envisaged, and Rijk wasn't a man to pretend...
They left after a leisurely meal and the promise on Sophie's part that she would let her mother know that they had arrived safely.
`You can phone,' said the professor, `during the morning.' He smiled at Mrs B bunt. 'I'll take good care of her, Mrs Blount.'
Her mother leaned through the car window and kissed his cheek. `I know that. Have a good trip and a happy week together.'
The ferry was half empty; they had more coffee and then parted for the night. `I've told the stewardess to bring you tea and toast at six o'clock,' said Rijk. `Sleep well, Sophie.'
It was rough on the crossing and, although she didn't feel seasick, she lay and worried,
wishing that she had never agreed to meet his family, never agreed to marry him, for that matter, never allowed him to foster their friendship in the first place...
She drank her tea and ate the toast and dressed, somewhat restored in her spirits in the light of a grey overcast morning. She was looking out of the porthole when there was a knock on the door and the professor came in. He took a look at her face and flung an arm round her shoulders. `You've been awake all night wishing you had never met me, never said that probably you will marry me, never agreed to come home with me.'
He gave her a sudden kiss, not at all like the swift kisses he had given her, but hard and warm, and her spirits rose with it. `Haven't you any doubts at all?' she asked him.
`Not one. We're about to dock. Come along, you'll feel better once we're on dry land.'
Strangely enough she did, relieved that her vague disquiet had melted away; she felt comfortable with him again, asking questions about the country that they were passing through.
'We'll stop for coffee,' he told her. `It's about a hundred and forty miles to my home; we should be there soon after eleven o'clock. We shall be on the motorway for most of the time-not very interesting, I'm afraid, but quick.'
The road ahead was straight with no hills in sight, bypassing the towns and villages. Holland was exactly as she had pictured it: flat and green with a wide sky and far more builtup than she had expected.
`This is the busiest corner of the country,' Rijk explained. `The further north we go, the fewer towns and factories. I think that you will like Friesland.'
They stopped for their coffee before they crossed the Afsluitdijk and by now, although it wasn't raining, there was a strong wind blowing, so that the water looked grey and cold.
The country had changed. They were across the dijk now and Rijk had taken a right-hand fork on to a motorway, passing Bolsward and circumventing Sneek before turning on to a country road. Villages were few and far between in the rolling countryside, but there were a few farmhouses, backed by huge barns, standing well apart from each other. In the distance a glimpse of water was visible.
`The sea?' asked Sophie, vague as to their direction.
`The lakes; Friesland is riddled with them. In the summer they're crowded with boats. That's Sneeker Meer you can see now. Presently we will go through a small town called Grouw, past more lakes. I live in a village well away from everywhere. We're going there first. Later we will go to my parents' home in Leeuwarden; that's only twelve miles or so.'
She was thankful to hear that. `Will they be there? All your family?'
He gave her clasped hands on her lap a brief comforting squeeze.
`They will like you and you will like them.'
`Oh, I do so hope so. Is this Grouw?'
It was really a very large village on the edge of a small lake and with a small harbour. In the summer it would be delightful, she thought; even now on this grey day it was picturesque and the small houses looked cosy. There were a few shops too and a hotel by the harbour. She craned her neck to see as much as possible before the professor drove into a narrow road with another lake on one side and a canal on the other, to cross a narrow spit of land and turn north and presently back towards the shore of a much larger lake.
`This is the Prinsenhof lake-the village is called Eernewoude; I live just the other side of it. Very quiet in winter, but watersports in summer.'
`There aren't any hospitals near-doesn't it take you a long time to reach them?"
'We're still only twelve miles from Leeuwarden, where I have beds, and Groningen is less than thirty miles-I have beds there too. I can reach the motorway to the south easily Amsterdam is only a hundred miles and the Belgian-Dutch border another sixty miles or so.'
`Do you go abroad a lot? O
ther than England?"
'Fairly frequently.' They were driving slowly through the village-a handful of houses, a church, a small shop, and then a narrow brick
road, the water on one side, a brickwall on the other, with great wrought-iron gates halfway along its length. They were open and a drive curved away, bordered by dense bushes and bare trees. The house was at the end of the curve and when Sophie saw it she took a sharp breath at the sight of it. She hadn't known what to expect, certainly not this imposing house of red brick and sandstone with its steep tiled roof, tall chimneys and square central tower surmounted by more tiles and an onion dome. It sheltered the vast door. The windows were long and narrow with painted shutters and to one side of the house there was what she took to be a moat.
The professor had stopped before his door and got out, opened her door and taken her arm.