by Betty Neels
In the corridor she asked anxiously: ‘Is it about Rienieta? Is something wrong?’
‘No, and I don’t think anything will be—there is every sign that she is completely free of brucellosis, although we can’t be positive until the result of the tests. Gemma, will you promise me something? You have been hoping that de Vos might come, have you not? Should he do so, I want you to feel free to spend your evening with him.’
She said awkwardly, taken by surprise: ‘I—I don’t suppose he will—it was only a silly idea of mine. How did you guess?’ She looked away from him. ‘Anyway, I couldn’t do that. I’ve just said I’d go out with you, Professor.’
‘My name is Ross, I told you that a long time ago, and I should consider myself a very mean-spirited fellow if I held you to your word—I’m a poor substitute for Leo.’ His voice was very even.
‘You’re not!’ said Gemma hotly. ‘You’re not a poor substitute for anyone, ever—you’re—you’re…’
‘Spare my blushes, dear girl, and just give me your promise.’
She promised in a troubled little voice.
Leo arrived at five minutes to seven, as she and the professor were crossing the hospital entrance hall. It was the professor who spoke in a quite unruffled voice.
‘Just in time, de Vos,’ he observed. ‘I was about to take Gemma out to dinner and show her something of the city, but now that you are here, I can feel free to hand her over to you for an hour or so.’
He smiled down at Gemma, who was racking her brains for something to say; it was absolutely marvellous to see Leo, of course, but wasn’t the professor giving her up too willingly? She felt vaguely that she was being treated as a parcel, handed from one to the other…perhaps he was relieved to be shot of her. All the same she asked: ‘Couldn’t you come with us?’ and didn’t see Leo’s quick frown.
The smile widened. ‘How kind of you to suggest it, but I have a lecture to prepare and shall welcome the opportunity to do so in peace and quiet.’
He nodded casually at them both and walked back across the hall and into one of the passages leading from it. Gemma watched him go, a prey to mixed feelings. So he wanted peace and quiet, did he? Probably he was overwhelmingly relieved that she should be taken off his hands at the last minute; had merely offered to take her out of kindness. She choked on humiliation and rage, forgetting the promise she had made earlier that evening, and smiled brilliantly at Leo. ‘However did you discover that I was here?’ she asked.
Leo took her arm. ‘I have my spies,’ he told her laughingly. ‘Let’s go somewhere gay and eat, shall we? I’m looking forward to a wonderful evening.’
Gemma agreed quickly, aware that that wasn’t quite true; it should have been a wonderful evening, but somehow the professor had spoilt it for her. He was a tiresome man, she told herself, and got into Leo’s car, carrying in her head a vivid picture of him sitting alone in some dreary room, surrounded by dry-as-dust books and with no one to talk to. She had to remind herself that it was sheer imagination on her part before she could dispel the picture.
CHAPTER SEVEN
GEMMA was taken to an Indonesian restaurant in a semi-basement under one of the lovely old houses in the heart of the city. It was hung with silk paintings and lighted by paper lanterns, and Leo ordered a variety of spicy dishes for her to sample. He was at his most charming, displaying an unexpected interest in Rienieta and an even greater interest in herself. He was cheerful too, but it was as though he wanted her to see that he had a serious side to his character as well as the lighthearted one he usually displayed. He listened to her brief account of her day and protested: ‘My poor darling, you do have a dull time of it—absolutely no fun at all!’
She looked uncertain. ‘Well, I don’t know what you mean by fun—I’ve enjoyed it, actually; Rienieta is a darling, you know, and the family are marvellous.’
‘Even Ross?’ Leo was half smiling at her in a tender way which made her forget everything and everyone else. She said: ‘Even Ross,’ and then remembered how he had been prepared to waste his evening on her. She had been cross about it at the time, but now she felt a pang of pity for him. The picture she had conjured up of him sitting alone with his dreary lecture returned more vividly than before. Try as she might she couldn’t quite make herself believe that the professor had no other interest in life but his work.
‘What are you thinking about?’ asked Leo, and then with narrowed eyes: ‘Or who?’
She didn’t answer that but said instead: ‘I expect to go back to England in a week’s time, perhaps less than that.’
He waved the waiter away, and Gemma, who would have liked a dessert after all that spicy food, felt faint annoyance at his action—he could at least have asked her; she couldn’t imagine the professor doing that… She didn’t pursue the thought as Leo exclaimed: ‘I know what I shall do! I shall give a party—a summer evening party—it is a little early in the year to have one, perhaps, but that doesn’t matter. We will have supper in the garden room and hang lights outside and everyone can stroll round in the garden, and later we can dance.’
A farewell treat? Gemma thought it might well be and then felt a surge of excitement as he went on: ‘Of course, we must see a lot more of each other—when will you be free again?’ He frowned. ‘We never seem to have more than an hour or two… What about this weekend?’
‘Well, nurses don’t have weekends when they’re on cases, not regular ones…’
He looked amused and she wondered why. ‘Oh, never mind—a day perhaps, or even half a day. Surely you’re able to manage that?’
She looked doubtful but said that she would try. If Rienieta was pronounced cured, she wouldn’t need a nurse any more, only someone to keep a check on her temperature and observe her health for a few more days—anyone in her family could do that, but Gemma thought that the professor might expect her to stay and do it. There was a possibility, a faint one it was true, that Rienieta might become ill again, and he would want to guard against that.
Leo was watching her; he wasn’t quite sure of her—not yet, but if he could get her alone for several hours it would be fun to get her to admit that she had fallen in love with him. He was beginning to regret his sudden impulse to attract her. She was a nice enough girl even though she was plain, but like most nice girls he had known, she tended to be quite unexciting; besides, she was a complete stranger to his way of life. It had been amusing at first and his friends had found it good sport… He caught her eye across the table and smiled delightfully at her. ‘Let’s go somewhere and dance,’ he suggested, ‘just for an hour.’
He took her to the Holiday Inn, but not even the champagne he ordered or the excellence of the dance floor deterred her from asking him to be taken back to the hospital after an hour or so. Leo was too clever to show his irritation. He drove her straight there without demur, wished her exactly the right kind of goodnight, displaying just the right amount of eagerness to see her again while at the same time displaying a flattering reluctance to say goodbye. Gemma floated into the hospital, her eyes shining, her world a-glow, and the professor, watching her from the doorway of the consultants’ room, noted her flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes and sighed soundlessly.
She was half way across the hall before she turned her head and saw him and stopped to say: ‘My goodness, you are up late! Didn’t the lecture go well?’
The professor, who never had trouble with the preparation of his lectures, indicated that it had absorbed his evening. He made no effort to move from his lounging position by the door and after a moment’s hesitation, Gemma walked across to him, driven by some impulse to tell him about her evening, and at the same time tell him that she was sorry not to have spent it with him. She stopped herself in time, however, for that would have sounded silly, and said baldly: ‘We went to an Indonesian restaurant. I wish you had been with us.’
‘My dear Gemma, how kind of you to say that, but I hardly think de Vos would agree with you.’
‘No—well,
perhaps not.’ She felt uncomfortable under his steady gaze. ‘We went on to a place called the Holiday Inn.’
‘You’re back early,’ he observed mildly.
‘It’s midnight,’ she pointed out, ‘and I told Rienieta that I wouldn’t be away too long.’ She flushed a little. ‘I like her.’
‘I know that. She’s going to miss you—don’t be in too much of a hurry to go, Gemma. I know there is no nursing to do, but you are a splendid companion for her and you’re giving her back her confidence.’
‘I’m glad.’
His voice was smooth. ‘You have lost a good deal of free time during the last week or so, haven’t you? We must see that you have a couple of days to yourself during the next week.’ He smiled thinly. ‘I’m sure Leo has asked you for another date.’
She smiled widely. ‘Oh, yes—I told him I might have a half day, and he’s going to give an evening party. Would you mind if I went to it?’
The professor’s lips twisted wryly. ‘Why should I mind?’
Somewhere close by the church clocks chimed the half hour and immediately after that there was the sound of quiet feet and rustling—the night nurses were going to first dinner. ‘I’d better go,’ said Gemma, and felt surprisingly reluctant to do so. She said diffidently: ‘I’m truly sorry about this evening, though I expect you were quite glad to have the time to spare for your lecture.’
He agreed gravely, not disclosing the fact that he had scribbled the salient points of it in his abominable scrawl in ten minutes flat and spent the remainder of the evening with his mind totally engrossed in a quite different matter.
‘Goodnight, then,’ said Gemma.
And ‘Goodnight,’ said the professor, only he didn’t stop there, he caught her close and kissed her so soundly that she had no breath left to do more than utter a squeak of surprise. She was already up the first flight of stairs before remarks suitable to such an occasion began to enter her bewildered head, and by then it was too late to utter them.
She awoke feeling apprehensive about meeting the professor after breakfast; it destroyed her appetite, so that the loss of it drew sympathetic glances and remarks from the nurses in the canteen, and even Rienieta, never the most observant of girls, remarked on her distraite air. ‘You are worried?’ she wanted to know. ‘You look as though you are going to be sick.’
Gemma mumbled about the rich Indonesian food she had eaten and took care to have her back to the door when the professor arrived, but she need not have worried; he wished her a good morning in his usual casual fashion, suggested that they might as well go at once to the shops, and swept both girls into the lift and out into the street. Wessel’s shop was close by and the three of them walked the short distance in the morning sunshine, and spent all of half an hour in its luxurious interior while Rienieta hesitated between a variety of handbags. Her brother, showing no signs of impatience, sat at his ease, apparently half asleep, while the two girls weighed up the advantages and disadvantages of the selection spread before them, but presently he suggested that as Rienieta couldn’t make up her mind between a green suede shoulder bag and a brown calf model, it might be as well if she had both. A simple solution but a rather expensive one, thought Gemma, who would have liked either one for herself. She tore her eyes from a particularly pretty brown patent leather clutch purse, and found the professor’s eyes fastened upon her so intently that in a fever of anxiety that he might feel it incumbent upon him to purchase it for her, she hurried across the shop to examine some quite dreary shopping bags with an air of nonchalance which brought a gleam of amusement to his eyes.
They had coffee before returning to the hospital, at a large, crowded café which the professor had obviously chosen in order to please his sister, who would have stayed there all the morning if he hadn’t pointed out goodhumouredly that he had work to do. They gained the hospital in excellent humour, with Gemma quite recovered from her awkward feelings at seeing him again, and went at once to discover the results of Rienieta’s tests and examination. The consultant physician they were to see was elderly, a shade pompous and tiresomely long-winded. He had a few words with the professor after an exchange of civilities and the latter came back with a cheerful: ‘Well, you’re cured, Rienieta! Another few days finding your feet and then back to your studies, my girl.’ He looked at his watch. ‘I must be off.’ He kissed her briefly, nodded absently in Gemma’s general direction, and disappeared, leaving them to drink more coffee with Zuster Blom until Doctor Dieperink van Berhuys arrived to drive them home.
‘Well, that’s that,’ thought Gemma regretfully as she followed the others to the lift. ‘Whatever Ross says, there’s no reason for me to stay for more than another few days.’ She would go back home and never see Leo again, unless of course he had anything to say to her before she went—there was the party, and he had suggested that they must meet again before that. She brightened at the thought and began to plan what she would wear—something new would have been nice and she had enough money to buy a new outfit. On the other hand if she did that, the washing machine would have to be put off for months. Besides, she hadn’t a job to go to and she wasn’t going to sponge on Cousin Maud. Perhaps the clothes she had would do.
Leo telephoned that evening. Rienieta had just gone to bed, tired and over-excited, and Gemma had gone to the library to write a letter home, preparing them for her return. She was half way through it when Ignaas came to tell her that he had put the call through to her there.
‘Which day is it to be?’ asked Leo. ‘The party’s at the end of the week and of course you’re coming to that, darling, but what about tomorrow? or the day after?’
‘The day after, I think—I haven’t asked yet. Besides, I think Rienieta should be kept quiet for a day, and if I’m with her…I could be free after lunch.’
‘For the rest of the day? Splendid. I’ll take you to Amsterdam and show you round. Can you get a key?’
‘Get a key? Why?’
He laughed. ‘So that you can get in, my darling idiot.’
‘But Ignaas never goes to bed before midnight—he told me so. He’ll let me in.’
‘Midnight? Be your age, Gemma—we’ll probably still be in Amsterdam until two or three in the morning.’
‘Then I don’t think I want to…’
He was quick to lull her thoughts. ‘OK, sweetheart, we’ll leave in good time and you’ll be back in your bed at a respectable hour.’
‘Thank you, Leo. What time shall I be ready?’
‘You said after lunch? Two o’clock? It’s only a hundred and forty kilometres to Amsterdam and a good road, we’ll be able to get up some speed—’bye for now.’
Gemma slept dreamlessly; left had never been so wonderful and it looked just as wonderful the next morning. She and Rienieta went for a leisurely cycle ride after breakfast, round and about the country roads running between the green fields. It was warm, but there was a breeze too, disheveling her hair and giving her cheeks a nice colour; she could have gone on for hours, but mindful of Rienieta she suggested that a visit to the stables to see how the puppies were might be fun, and her companion agreed eagerly. They had their coffee, brought by a willing Ignaas, at the stables with the little beasts tumbling all around them, and then lay on a convenient pile of hay in the sun. They were on their way back to the house when they met Ross, strolling across the lawn to meet them. Rienieta greeted him with a shout of pleasure. ‘Ross, how lovely! You have never been to see us so many times for years and years—are you taking a holiday from your work? Are you staying?’ She went on eagerly: ‘We could go out this afternoon—you and me and Gemma?’
He shook his head. ‘Lieveling, I’m on my way to Brussels and I’m only here for lunch. What have you been doing with yourself?’
He addressed his sister, but it was Gemma he looked at.
‘We went on our bikes,’ Rienieta told him happily, ‘and then we played with the puppies, and this afternoon, after I’ve had a rest, we’re going on the lake—Gemma
knows how to row…’
‘And is Gemma to have no time to herself?’
His sister looked taken aback. ‘I don’t know.’ She looked at Gemma. ‘Gemma?’
‘Oh, I’m quite content,’ said Gemma cheerfully, ‘and tomorrow I’m going out after lunch.’ And even though the professor showed not a vestige of interest, she went on: ‘With Leo—he’s taking me to Amsterdam to see the sights. He’s promised to bring me back here by midnight.’
The professor glanced at her briefly. ‘I’m sure you will enjoy that,’ he said formally. ‘And now shall we go in to lunch?’
Gemma didn’t see him alone again. The Jaguar slid away from the house directly lunch was over and he didn’t look back, although he must have seen her standing outside the drawing room windows. She wished vaguely that she was going with him before allowing her thoughts to return to Leo once more.
The next day was glorious. She put on the jersey dress and hoped that Leo wouldn’t notice that she had worn it before and was flattered when he cried: ‘Hullo, my lovely,’ and then felt completely deflated by his: ‘You’ve worn that dress before, haven’t you? Haven’t you anything else?’ Perhaps the look on her face warned him, for he added: ‘You look lovely in it anyway.’
Her world was back on an even keel once more; she smiled warmly at him, returned his kiss a little shyly and slid into the seat beside his.
Thinking about it later, she couldn’t remember what they had talked about, but they had laughed a lot and Leo had set himself to captivate her with his own particular brand of charm and gaiety. They were in Amsterdam before she realised that they were anywhere near it, and she looked about her with interest as he drove through the narrow streets, bustling with life. He had a parking place, he told her smugly—the garage of someone he knew. From there it was only a short walk to the Hotel Doelen, where he had suggested that they might go to the open-air restaurant and have tea. Gemma would have liked time to stroll through the city and look about her. There was so much to see—quaint houses, quiet canals, tree-lined and ageless, with their floating flower-shops, and fairy-like bridges, but Leo hurried her along; obviously such things held no novelty for him.