by Betty Neels
‘You like it better than GP’s work?’
He considered. ‘It’s absorbing, but then so are the patients. I suppose I like them equally. I heard from Willy yesterday, he’s coming to see us in a few weeks’ time; he said the station isn’t the same without you.’
She laughed. ‘I can’t believe that. It was fun, though. Freddy wants to go back.’
‘There’s always a place for a good man. Do you want to go out or shall we stay here and dine with Mama?’
She chose to stay. His face was lined with tiredness; he could relax in his mother’s house, he could even go to sleep if he wanted to while Annis and Mevrouw van Germert gossiped. They had become good friends during the past days. Annis, who had heard dreadful things about mothers-in-law, had been delighted about that.
They didn’t go out on any of the ensuing nights, either; there were suddenly a lot of last-minute arrangements to make, packing to do, her hair to be seen to, telephone calls and endless priming from Mevrouw van Germert as to her future relations. And on the evening before the wedding everyone arrived and in the rush of meeting them, seeing them safely into their hotels and installing Great-Aunt Mary and Carol in two of the guest rooms, she hardly had time to speak to Jake who arrived in time for dinner, but only just. It was much later, when everyone had gone and the guests were in their rooms and Mevrouw van Germert sitting in her drawing room doing tapestry work to settle her before she went to bed too, that Annis and Jake found themselves alone in the hall.
‘Come in here,’ he said, and opened the door into the small sitting room at the end of the passage. ‘I’ve hardly seen you.’ He stood and looked at her in a leisurely fashion. ‘I like that dress too. Is it new?’
It was a printed silk, with a scooped-out neckline, a tiny waist and a full skirt, and it became her very well. ‘Yes—it seemed something of an occasion…’
He swung close to her. ‘Indeed it is. Are you scared?’
‘No. Are you?’
He shook his head. ‘No—only that I’ll trip up going into the Raadhuis and fall flat on my face.’
She laughed and he said gently: ‘That’s better.’ He put a hand in his pocket. ‘I’ve a present for you, I hope you’ll wear it tomorrow.’
The case was long and leather-covered and Annis opened it slowly. There was a string of pearls inside with a diamond and sapphire clasp. ‘They’re gorgeous!’ she whispered. ‘Of course I’ll wear them. Oh, Jake, thank you.’ She ran a finger along their milky richness. ‘I’ve never had anything as lovely.’
She reached up and kissed him a little shyly, wishing that he would fling down his crutches and put his arms round her and kiss her too. But he didn’t. ‘You must go to bed, my dear,’ he observed mildly. ‘Tomorrow is going to be a long day.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE WEDDING MORNING was bright and clear with a blue sky and sunshine tempered by a chilly little wind. Annis, awake early and hanging out of her window, sniffed at the pleasant garden smells and leaned out a little further so that she could see the magnificent roses climbing the end wall—New Dawn, pale pink and still prolific although summer was dying. A small sound below her made her look down. Jake was there, in slacks and a sweater, leaning on his crutches, and she gazed at him open-mouthed. ‘What on earth…’ she began.
‘Hullo, Annis. How about a stroll before breakfast? Cor’s in the car with some coffee, and so is Mike.’ He grinned suddenly. ‘And put something on, my dear.’
Annis withdrew rapidly, thinking vexedly as she did so that it was a pity that all her prettiest nighties were packed and she was wearing a cotton one with very little top to it. ‘All right,’ she hissed, ‘I’ll be down—I didn’t expect you…’
‘I should hope not,’ said Jake.
She joined him presently, wearing slacks and a blouse and with her fiery hair loose. She had washed her face after a fashion and she looked about twelve years old. Perhaps that was why Jake didn’t kiss her. They went round the side of the house to where Cor sat in the Bristol and he wished her good morning before pouring coffee for them both.
‘Have some yourself, Cor,’ said Jake. ‘You deserve it, being got out of your bed at this hour. Only another week or two, then I can drive myself.’
They sipped their coffee in companionable silence before Jake said: ‘Now a little stroll, don’t you think, Annis?’
She nodded. ‘It’s a bit funny,’ she began, ‘I mean, in a couple of hours’ time I’ll be getting into wedding finery. I wish it was all over, Jake.’
He smiled at her as they started off with Mike walking sedately beside them.
‘I think you’ll enjoy it, my dear, once it actually starts.’ He stopped to examine a bed of roses. ‘Mind you’re ready for me when I come.’
She gave him a quick glance. ‘I promise that. How long will it all last?’
‘The reception? Oh, about nine o’clock this evening, I should think, perhaps a little later. We shall have supper by ourselves. I’m sorry it’s not longer. Once I’ve got this damn plaster off, we’ll go away for a bit, if you like.’
‘Only if it doesn’t upset your work. I shall be happy in Goes, Jake.’
‘You love the house, don’t you? That’s more than half the battle…’
They were coming back towards the house. She stopped suddenly. ‘What do you mean? What battle?’
He stared at her for a long moment. ‘Forgetting is always a battle.’
Here was the chance to tell him, and it couldn’t be on a better day. ‘Jake, there’s something…’
She was interrupted by Great-Aunt Mary’s voice from her bedroom window. It was full of shocked horror. ‘Annis, what do you think you’re doing? Don’t you know that the pair of you aren’t supposed to see each other until the wedding? I’ve never heard of anything like it! Come in at once, you’re supposed to be having breakfast in bed.’
Jake laughed. ‘My fault,’ he called, and then turned to Annis. ‘Go back to bed, my dear, and make everyone happy. I’ll be along later.’ He paused. ‘Whatever it was you were going to tell me will have to wait. Or was it important?’
Annis sighed soundlessly. That was the second time she’d been thwarted; could it be unkind Fate or just bad luck? ‘Not a bit important,’ she told him lightly.
‘And don’t you dare kiss her,’ called Great-Aunt Mary, still watching.
‘I never could resist a challenge,’ said Jake, and bent over her. She supposed it was because Great- Aunt Mary was watching that he kissed her so slowly.
She was ready far too soon. She took a last look at her reflection, decided that the cream organza was really rather dreamy, pulled the little coronet of white flowers straight on the top of her piled-up hair, and went downstairs. Her aunt, Carol and Freddy were on the point of leaving in Freddy’s car, for he had arrived to drive them to the Raadhuis, his rakish Jag followed by Hans driving the BMW with Mevrouw van Germert sitting in the back. She looked stately and very handsome in her steel-grey dress and feathered hat, but her face had softened as she kissed Annis before she went. ‘Jake won’t keep you waiting, my dear, just sit quietly in the drawing room.’
So she sat, thinking that it was a funny way to get married. At home Freddy would have been waiting with her and she wouldn’t have seen Jake until she was actually in the church. She wondered what they would say to each other when he arrived.
He came into the room so quietly that she didn’t hear the soft thud of his crutches on the carpet. His: ‘Oh, very nice, very nice indeed,’ brought her to her startled feet with a loud gasp.
‘My goodness, you made me jump!’ she told him.
‘If it comes to that, you made me jump too. Very beautiful, dear Annis.’
He looked pretty good himself. The plaster was concealed in his pinstriped trouser leg—she supposed it had a zip somewhere; his tail-coat fitted him perfectly, his grey tie exactly matched the grey of the top hat he held in his hand. She said ‘Thank you, Jake,’ and added: ‘You look pretty good,
too.’ She went to meet him across the lovely room. ‘Is your leg all right?’
‘Couldn’t be better.’ He bent and kissed her cheek. ‘Feeling better about it all now?’
‘Yes. Everything’s fine, Jake.’ She put out a hand and touched his coat sleeve. ‘Jake, I’ll be a good wife to you—I know that sounds old-fashioned, but I mean it.’
‘If I didn’t have these blasted crutches to wrestle with, I’d show you my appreciation for those words. I know you’ll be a good wife, darling Annis. I intend to be a good husband.’ His voice was light and she couldn’t see his eyes as he had dropped their lids. ‘Shall we go?’
The Bristol had been decked with flowers, the back window was framed with them, there was a garland at each side and Cor had an enormous nosegay in his buttonhole. He opened the door for them and Jake leaned forward and took her bouquet from the back seat. A lovely shower of cream roses and orange blossom and white orchids. He gave it to her with a little bow and then kissed her briefly while the entire staff of his mother’s house, watching from the porch, clapped loudly. Annis remembered to turn and wave before she got into the car.
There was quite a crowd in the market square before the Raadhuis. They went up the steps slowly to where the great door stood open and Annis longed to take Jake’s arm because it all seemed so strange. But he needed both hands to get himself and his crutches up to the door, so she clutched her bouquet and smiled shyly at the upturned faces.
Once inside, they were led to the Wedding Chamber, to pause in the small anteroom so that Carol could join them with Freddy, before the double doors were opened and they went in. The room was a large, lofty one with rows of little velvet-covered chairs facing a carved table behind which the Burgermeester stood, ready to marry them. There seemed to be at least twice as many people there as she had expected and almost all of them were strangers. They paused inside the doorway and Jake leaned on his crutches and took her hand in his; only for a moment, but it reassured her. She lifted her chin, smiled at him, and walked beside him to the table and sat down beside him in front of it.
The ceremony was brief and she wasn’t sure that she felt married when it was over; she signed her name and watched a great many other people do the same before they walked back the way they had come, down the steps and into the car once more. There were more people now and someone taking photos. None of it seemed quite real. The drive to the church was brief, for its great bulk overshadowed the Raadhuis from a nearby square. It could have been even briefer, but so that all the guests could get there first, Cor took the car on a short drive through the town, to return to the church once the last guest had gone in. And this time Annis did feel married. She didn’t understand the service, but the form of it was similar to her own church, and Jake had explained it to her earlier; even the hymn tunes were the same and the church was beautiful, its magnificent organ echoing out in its vast interior. The ring was put on her finger for a second time, a plain gold band exactly matching the one she had got for Jake, and she touched it briefly as they started down the aisle. Now she really was Jake’s wife and even though the future might hold a few pitfalls and the uncertainty that he might never love her as she loved him, she was happy.
There was another small crowd waiting outside the church and more photographs before they got into the Bristol again and were driven away to Jake’s house. The staff were lined up outside, waiting for them and they had to stop and shake everyone by the hand before they went inside. At the door Jake said half laughing: ‘I’m supposed to carry you over the threshold, aren’t I? But I don’t think I can. Something else which will have to be put off until I’ve got this plaster off. This will do instead, perhaps.’
He kissed her and took no notice at all of the murmur of approval from those watching, then, with her beside him, he went into the house.
The reception was to be in the drawing room, its furniture moved back against its walls, small tables and chairs in their place. At one end there was a long table where they were to sit with the closer members of the family. It sparkled with silver and glass and exquisitely arranged flowers, but there was no time to examine it. Jake caught her hand in his. ‘Here they come,’ he said as the door opened and his mother, escorted by an uncle whose name Annis couldn’t remember, came in, then Great-Aunt Mary, almost unrecognisable in a feather toque and an elegant two-piece. She had another uncle in tow, a merry old man whom Jake had introduced as Oom Karel, and behind them came Carol and Freddy, obviously enjoying each other’s company. There was barely time to exchange kisses and handshakes before the guests streamed in. And after that it was a confused muddle of wedding hats, curious eyes, hearty gentlemen who beat Jake remorselessly on the shoulders and kissed her with gusto, and cheerful younger faces, who eyed her with friendliness and told her how pretty she looked. Then she heard Jake say: ‘Ah, Waldo and Olympia,’ and met the dark eyes of a very pretty girl with a quantity of hair piled into a knot at the back of her neck and crowned by a little flowery hat. She smiled widely at Annis and offered a hand, and Jake went on: ‘Two friends of mine, and now they’re friends of ours, my dear. They live in Middelburg, remember, and have a clutch of children.’
Olympia laughed and put up her face to be kissed while her husband leaned down to kiss Annis’s cheek. ‘Just as pretty as he said you were and a good deal prettier,’ he told her. He was as tall as Jake and just as large and smiled at her in such a friendly fashion that she found herself smiling back, aware that here were indeed two friends. ‘We’ll see you later,’ murmured Olympia, and moved away to make room for an elderly, cross-looking lady, dressed well but in a very old-fashioned style and wearing a great many diamond rings.
‘Tante Wilhelmina, how delightful,’ observed Jake. ‘My wife, Annis.’
The old lady stared at her from small bright blue eyes. ‘H’m—pretty enough, and got some flesh on her bones, I’m glad to see. Give me a kiss, my girl, you may call me Tante Wilhelmina as well.’
She swept on and Annis whispered: ‘Which side of your family is she? She’s a bit overpowering.’
Jake chuckled. ‘A great-aunt on my father’s side. She’s a baroness and very, very rich. She lives in den Haag all alone except for the servants; her daughters are married and live in America, and her son married a girl she doesn’t like. I don’t like her either. Here they come now.’
He leaned on his crutches and tucked a hand under her arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Annis knew at once why he didn’t like the youngish woman standing before them; she was good-looking, but her eyes were hard and searching and her mouth had turned down corners. She was very well dressed but without much taste, and when she spoke her voice was high and faintly querulous. ‘So this is the bride. I must say, Jake, I’m surprised that you’ve married a foreigner. I quite thought you’d settle for Nina…’ She gave a spiteful little laugh. ‘Perhaps she wouldn’t have you.’ She shook Annis’s hand, her eyes on the pearls round her throat. ‘You’ve got the pearls already, I see.’
Annis smiled politely. The woman was ghastly, but she supposed there was one in every family. She listened to Jake making polite conversation with her as she shook hands with her husband, a man a good deal older than his wife with a florid face and a roving eye. Jake was equally polite to him as well and when they had disappeared into the throng of guests, turned to Annis and winked at her. ‘There can’t be many more,’ he told her softly. ‘We’ve earned our champagne.’
‘Who’s Nina?’ asked Annis. Her face was calm and smiling, but her green eyes looked greener than ever.
Jake laughed. ‘Ah—well, I’ll tell you about her some time.’ He said smoothly: ‘And here are the last of the stragglers…’ He turned to greet two elderly, comfortably plump ladies, who smiled and twinkled at Annis as they kissed her warmly. It was a pity that they spoke in Dutch because she had to rely on Jake translating what they said and he had obviously given her a shortened version, but all the same, they exuded kindness, chattering away like two elderly magpi
es.
‘Two aunts on Mother’s side, Tante Beatrix and Tante Coralie. Both nice.’ He smiled down at her. ‘We had better join the others.’
The next hour was rather dreamlike. Annis nibbled at the delicious bits and pieces offered her, drank a little too much champagne and listened to a variety of speeches, all of them delivered in English in her honour, although sometimes they were a little difficult to follow. And presently the tables were cleared away and she and Jake walked among their guests and this time she remembered at least some of their names, and when she didn’t, Jake was there to prompt her quietly. The evening was well advanced when the first of the guests began to leave; Annis, quite tired by now and rather hungry because she had really eaten very little and drunk too much, shook hands all over again and proffered her cheek to countless aunts and uncles and cousins. Her own guests were going back to an hotel for the night and she said goodbye to them too, then found a quiet corner so that she might have a last word with her aunt and Freddy and Carol.
‘Marvellous!’ exclaimed Carol. ‘You look so beautiful, Annis, and what a lovely wedding—and how romantic, Jake going to fetch you with a bouquet. I suppose he hasn’t got a brother?’
Freddy threw a proprietorial arm round her pinkclad shoulders. ‘You don’t need to look further,’ he observed lightly. ‘I’m his brother-in-law now, and that’s near enough for you, darling.’
Carol had pinkened a little and not answered, and Annis had laughed at them as though it were a joke, although she wasn’t sure that it was. It would be nice… She caught Great-Aunt Mary’s eye, saw the decided twinkle in it and bent forward and gave that lady an affectionate kiss. ‘I’ll come over and see you soon,’ she promised, and pinkened in her turn at her aunt’s brisk:
‘And Jake will come with you, naturally.’