by Betty Neels
He said in a comforting kind of voice, `It's quite cosy inside.'
Sophie looked up at him. `It's beautiful-I had no idea. I am longing to go in; I can't wait-and there's a dog barking...'
He smiled down at her excited face. `Come inside and meet Matt.'
CHAPTER FIVE
SOPHIE and Rijk climbed the shallow steps to the door together and it was opened as they reached it to allow a large shaggy dog to launch itself at the professor. Sophie prudently took a step back, for the animal was large and looked ferocious as well. The professor bore the onslaught with equanimity, bade the beast calm down, and drew Sophie forward.
`This is Matt. A bouvier. He'll be your companion, your devoted friend, and die for you if he has to.'
Sophie took off her glove and offered a balled fist and the beast sniffed at it and then rasped it with a great tongue. He had small yellow eyes and enormous teeth, but she had the impression that he was smiling at her. Indeed, he offered his head for a friendly scratch.
The man who had opened the door was as unlike Percy as it was possible to be, a powerfully built man with a slight stoop, grey hair and a round, weather-beaten face. The professor shook hands with him and clapped him on the shoulder and introduced him.
`This is Rauke, who looks after the house. His wife, Tyske, housekeeps and cooks; here she comes.'
Sophie shook hands with Rauke and then with the elderly woman who had joined them in the porch. She was as tall as Sophie, with a long face and grey hair and clear blue eyes. Her handshake was firm and she said something with a smile which Sophie hoped was a welcome.
The porch opened into a vestibule which in turn opened into the hall, square and whitewalled, with a staircase facing the door, lighted by a long window on its half-landing. The ceiling was lofty and from it hung a brass chandelier, simple in design and, thought Sophie, very old. There was an elaborately carved side-table too and two great chairs arranged on either side of it. It was exactly like a Dutch interior, even to the black and white marble floor. Still gazing around her, she was led away by Tyske to a cloakroom under the staircase, equipped with every modern comfort. She had time to think while she did her face and tidied her hair, and back in the hall she said at once, `You might have told me, Rijk."
'What should I have told you?' He looked amused.
`Why, that you had such a grand house. I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't this.'
`It is my home,' he said simply, `and it isn't grand-on the large side, perhaps, but I use all the rooms-not all the time, of course, but I live here, Sophie. Come and have a cup of coffee and presently we will go over it together.'
He ushered her through a double door into a room with windows overlooking the grounds at the back of the house. It was light by reason of the lofty ceiling and was furnished with sofas and easy-chairs arranged around the hooded fireplace, in which a fire burned briskly. The walls were panelled and hung with faded red silk and there were a great many paintings on them, mostly portraits. There were glassfronted cabinets against the walls, filled with porcelain and silver, and a handsome Stoel clock hanging above the fireplace, and scattered around, with a nice regard for the convenience of the room's occupants, were small tables with elegant table lamps.
Matt came to meet them as they crossed to the fire and once they were seated facing each other he stretched out between them, breathing gusty sighs of content, one eye on the coffeetray and the plate of biscuits beside it.
They drank their coffee in companionable silence broken only by the crunching of the biscuits the professor offered to Matt.
`He must miss you,' said Sophie.
`Oh, yes. He goes with me to Leeuwarden and Groningen, though. He will be delighted to have your company while I'm away.'
`You don't have to go away?'
The dismay on her face made him say at once, `No, no. I was talking of when we are married.' He put down his coffee-cup and sat back at his ease. `We have a whole week to be together, Sophie.'
And at the uncertain look on her face, `My mother and father will come back here and stay with us for a week. They have many friends living around here; they will be out every day.' He grinned suddenly. `You see how careful I am to observe the proprieties-unnecessary in this day and age, but we're a strait-laced lot in Friesland.'
Sophie, with a slightly heightened colour, looked him in the eye. 'I'm strait-laced too.'
`Which strengthens my argument that we are very well suited.'
He got up and Matt got up with him. `Would you like to see the house?'
They crossed the hall with Matt keeping pace with them, and the professor opened a door on its opposite side. `The dining-room,' he told her, `but when I'm on my own I use a smaller room at the back of the house. I have asked Rauke to set lunch there for us.'
It was a splendid room; she could imagine a dinner party sitting around the rectangular table, decked no doubt with silver and crystal, and with the wall sconces sending a flattering glow on the women guests. There was a sideboard along one wall with flanking pedestal cupboards surmounted by urns and several large oil-paintings hung on the walls; a second door led to a smaller room-a kind of anteroom, she supposed. In turn it opened into a roomm at the back of the house with doors opening on to the terrace from which steps led to wide lawns and flowerbeds. It was a charming room, furnished with easy-chairs and a circular table; there was a television set in one corner and bookshelves and a dear little writing-table in another corner. There was a bright fire burning here and the professor declared, `This is one of my favourite roomswe shall lunch here, just the two of us.'
He opened a door beside the windows. `This is the library.' It was a splendid room with enormous desks at each end of it, leather chairs arranged around small tables, and shelves of books.
`One more room,' he observed and led her through a door into the hall again and opened a door close to the staircase. `My study.'
It was austerely furnished with a partners' desk, a vast leather chair behind it, a couple of smaller chairs facing it and again shelves of books. There was a computer, too, an electric typewriter and an answering machine all arranged on a smaller table under the two long windows.
`I have a secretary who comes three or four times a week and sees to my letters.' He flipped over the pile of correspondence on his desk. `Let us go upstairs.'
The staircase was of oak with a wrought-iron balustrade with a half-landing from where it branched to the gallery above. It was quiet there, their footsteps deadened by the thick carpet as he led her to the front of the house. There were a pair of rather grand double doors here and he opened them on to a beautiful room, the vast bed and furniture of satin wood, the curtains and bedspread of ivory and rose brocade. Sophie rotated slowly, looking her fill.
`What a beautiful room. You have a lovely home, Rijk it's a bit big, but it's so-lived in. "
'I'm glad you like it. Come this way.' He opened a door to a bathroom which led in turn to a smaller bedroom and then into the corridor.
There were passages leading to the back of the house and he led her down each one in turn, opening doors so that she might look at each room before going up a smaller flight of stairs to the floor above.
The rooms were smaller here but just as comfortably furnished, and right at the end of one passage there was a large, airy room with bars at the windows and a high fireguard before the big stove. There was a rocking-horse under the windows and a doll's house on one of the numerous shelves. Sophie wondered what toys the closed cupboards held.
`Your nanny must have had a busy time,' she observed. `You and your brothers and sisters...'
`She stood no nonsense and we all loved her dearly. You shall meet her later on-she has her own rooms in my parents' house. The night nurseries are through there as well as a room for Nanny and a little kitchen. We spent a great deal of time with my mother and father-we all had a very happy childhood.'
They were back in the passage with Matt, breathing heavily with pleasu
re, at their heels when a gong sounded from below. `Lunch,' said the professor. `There's still another floor, but we can look at that later on.'
They talked about nothing much as they ate; the professor steadfastly refused to allow Sophie to ask questions of a personal nature and since she was hungry and the leek soup, bacon fritters and assortment of vegetables were very much to her taste she didn't much mind.
It was like being in a dream, she reflected, pouring coffee for them both; any minute she would wake up and find herself back in the accident room at St Agnes's...
They got into the car presently with Matt crouching in the back, poking his great head between them from time to time and giving great gusty sighs.
`Does he like cats?' asked Sophie.
`I have been told over and over again by well meaning people that he would kill any cat he saw. He takes no notice of them at all; indeed, he is on the best of terms with Tyske's Miep and her kittens, and Miep doesn't care tuppence for him.'
They were on the motorway now, racing towards Leeuwarden, and Sophie stared out of the window, a bundle of nerves.
Without looking at her, the professor began a rambling conversation about Matt which needed no replies and which lasted until he slowed the car to drive through the heart of Leeuwarden. The afternoon was darkening already and the shops were lighted, decked for Christmas, and the pavements were thronged with shoppers, but she didn't have much chance to look around her for Rijk turned away from the main streets and drove through narrow ways lined with tall old houses and then into a brick street beside a canal with a line of great gabled houses facing it. He stopped before one of them.
`Here we are,' he told her.
The man who opened the door to them was elderly, tall and thin, but very upright. He greeted the professor with a dignified, `A pleasure to see you, Mr Rijk, sir,' and Rijk shook his hand and clapped him on the shoulder.
`How are you, Clerkie? Sophie, this is Clerk, who runs this place for my father and mother has done for as long as I can remember taught me to fish and swim and ride a bike-taught us all, in fact.'
Sophie put out a hand and he went on, `Miss Sophie Blount, my guest for a week. Anyone at home?'
Clerk's calm features broke into a smile. `Everyone, sir.' He gave Sophie a fatherly look. `Shall I take Miss Blount's coat? And would she wish to arrange her hair and so forth?'
The professor turned to study her. `Not a hair out of place and the face looks much as usual. You'll do, Sophie' He took her arm and crossed the square hall with Clerk's figure slightly ahead to open the door on one side of it.
The room was large, with a high ceiling and enormous windows stretching from ceiling to floor; it was also full of people, children and dogs.
As they went in the loud murmurs of conversation stopped and there was a surge towards them with cries of 'Rijk' and a babble of talk Sophie couldn't understand, but the next minute she found herself face to face with the professor's parents, his arm tucked comfortably under hers.
At first glance Mevrouw van Taak ter Wijsma looked formidable, but that was by reason of her height and well corseted stoutness. A second glance was more reassuring; her blue eyes, on a level with Sophie's, were kind and the smile on her still handsome face was sweet. She was dressed elegantly, her grey hair swept into an old-fashioned coil on top of her head, her twin set and skirt very much in the same style as that of Sophie's mother. It was silly that such a small thing should have put Sophie at her ease.
The professor's father was still a very handsome man with white hair and dark eyes. He kissed Sophie's cheek and welcomed her with a warmth she hadn't expected, before Rijk led her around the room. His five sisters were there, and so were their husbands, their children and a variety of dogs; moreover, his two brothers were there too. She shook hands and smiled and forgot all their names the moment they were said, but that didn't seem to matter in such an atmosphere of friendliness. As for the children, they clung to their uncle, offered small hands and cheeks for a kiss and took her for granted. So did the dogs-two Labradors, a Jack Russell and a small whiskery creature with melting eyes. His name was Friday, she was told, and when she asked why one of the older children said in English, `That was the day Daddy found him.' They asked, `We have cats; do you?"
'Well, yes, I have a cat of my own; she's called Mabel.'
`Good, you will bring her here when you marry Uncle Rijk?'
`Well, yes. You speak very good English...'
`We have a nanny. When you and Oom Rijk have babies you will also have a nanny.'
The conversation was getting rather out of hand; she looked round for Rijk and caught his eye and he broke off the conversation with his father and made his way to her. `Is Timon practising his English? He's Tiele's eldest son she's the one in the green dress. Three boys so far, but they'd like a daughter... Come and talk to Loewert. He's at Leiden in his last year.'
He was a younger edition of Rijk and brimming over with the wish to be friendly. He obligingly took her round the room once more and told her all the names once again so that by the time they had all settled round the room drinking tea and eating fragile little biscuits she could pick out various members of the family for herself. Rijk's mother, sitting beside her on one of the massive sofas, was carrying on the kind of conversation which didn't need much thought, telling her little snippets of information about the family.
`We are such a large family,' she observed, `and I am sure that Rijk quite forgot to tell you about us. He is immersed in his work-too much so, I consider.' She smiled at Sophie. `You will alter that, I hope, my dear.'
Sophie, watching him talking to his brothers at the other end of the room, wondered if she would. It seemed unlikely.
Presently they got up to go. Rijk's parents went away to get their hats and coats, Matt was coaxed away from the garden where he had been romping with the other dogs, and Sophie began a round of goodbyes. She hadn't known about the Dutch kissing three times; by the time she had bidden goodbye to everyone in the room she felt quite giddy. She must remember to ask Rijk about it; he had never kissed her three times. Indeed, his kisses had been few and far between and then brief...
The elders of the party got into the back of the Bentley with Matt and Sophie found herself sitting by Rijk, and really, she thought a little crossly, I've hardly seen him all afternoon.
He seemed unaware of her coolness, though, talking about his family in a desultory way until they reached his house and once they were there seeing to his parents' comfort, handing them over to Rauke, and then walking her off to the small sitting-room at the back of the house.
`There's half an hour before we need to change,' he told her. `Come and have a drink and tell me what you think of my family.'
`They are very nice,' said Sophie inadequately. `I haven't quite sorted them out yet...'
`Time enough to do that,' he said cheerfully. `Would you like a glass of sherry? We'll meet in the drawing-room just before dinner, but I think you deserve a drink; the family like you.'
`Supposing they hadn't liked me?'
He shrugged huge shoulders. `That would make no difference as far as I'm concerned.'
He turned away to pour the sherry and she said on impulse, `Have you ever been in love, Rijk?'
He put the drink down beside her and settled into a chair opposite hers.
`Several times! If you mean the fleeting romances we are all prone to from time to time. But if you are doubtful as to any future entanglements of that nature on my part, I can assure you that I have long outgrown them.'
Once started she persisted. `But you do believe in people falling in love and-and loving each other?'
`Certainly I do. For those fortunate enough to do both.' He added softly, `Cold feet, Sophie?"
'No, no.' She blushed a little under his amused gaze. `I was just being curious; I didn't mean to pry.'
'I'm glad we're good friends enough to be able to ask each other such questions.'
`Yes, well, so am I. I think I
'd better go up and change...'
`I must take a quick turn in the garden with Matt. We'll meet again in the drawing-room.'
He got up with her and opened the door and stood watching her as she crossed the halll and started up the staircase. Sophie, aware of that, felt self-conscious, which wasn't like her at all.
She wore the mulberry silk; it suited her well and, studying her reflection in the pier glass, she felt tolerably satisfied with her appearance. She hadn't been quite sure what to wear, but somehow Rijk's mother looked the kind of lady to follow the conventions of her younger days. She was glad that she had decided to wear it when she entered the drawing-room, for Mevrouw van Taak ter Wijsma was in black crepe, cut with great elegance, and a fitting background for the double row of pearls she was wearing. As for the men, they wore dark grey suits and ties of subdued splendour, so that Sophie felt that she was dressed exactly as she ought to be and heaved a small sigh of relief, noticed with the ghost of a smile by Rijk.