by Isobel Chace
‘Have they told her yet?’ Sara asked.
‘I shouldn’t think so. When they do, we’ll hear the explosion right up at the house! Laura Wayne was the most devoted wife that a man could ever hope to have!’
‘What’s that got to do with it?’ Sara was still genuinely mystified by her aunt’s expected reactions.
‘Do you mean to say that you don’t know?’ Mrs. Halifax exclaimed rather than asked.
‘No, should I?’
Mrs. Halifax looked at the road ahead of her with thoughtful eyes.
‘Yes, I think you should,’ she said. ‘Quite apart from the fact that your role will be pacifier-in-chief, I think you ought to know. It’s so easy to put one’s foot in it, without the least intention of being tactless, and James is so terribly sensitive!’
She paused while she changed gears, and the car went on in its stately progress.
‘It was James who was with Noel when he was killed. He might have been able to save him, but he panicked. James has never been able to forgive himself, though I think everyone except Laura understood. He probably wouldn’t have been able to do anything anyway, but he should have checked the ropes before they went climbing!’
It was said so simply that for a minute Sara found it difficult to believe that she was speaking about her own son.
‘I’m terribly sorry,’ she said inadequately.
‘It was tragic for everyone,’ Mrs. Halifax went on. ‘Especially for James, because he’s never been able to trust himself since. He’s talked about going to England before — and blamed Matt when he couldn’t summon sufficient courage to actually go!’ She sighed. ‘I shall miss him, though.’
‘But you think he’ll be happier in England?’ Sara asked.
Mrs. Halifax nodded.
‘Yes. He’s a good writer, and he’ll never be a fanner or a mechanic. He hates it and he’s careless, and that makes him worse, if you see what I mean?’
Sara thought of Matt’s reaction when the Auster had failed and silently agreed that it would be much better for James to be doing what he wanted to do, and something that he was good at. Nothing would have induced her to say anything about that moment to anyone, but she couldn’t help wondering whether in some way James had been responsible for the engine not functioning properly.
‘Tell me about the accident, Mrs. Halifax — if you don’t mind, that is, You see, we heard at home that my uncle had been killed in an accident, but that was all we knew. None of us had ever met Aunt Laura and—’
‘And she certainly wouldn’t say anything she didn’t have to to his family! She always was possessive about him, but she made him very happy, so she must have a lot of good qualities that I know nothing about, because I make no secret of the fact that I can’t stand the woman!’
Mrs. Halifax drove the Jaguar up to the hospital doors and switched off the engine.
‘I don’t know if I’m doing right keeping you out here talking, but here goes! Noel was an ardent rock climber, and he taught both the boys when they were young, though only James ever really took to the sport. They went out together that afternoon on a rather difficult climb and Noel insisted that they should take ropes. James said it was all nonsense and that they wouldn’t need them, but he promised to check them over. Well, the long and the short of it was that he didn’t trouble. When they found that they did need the ropes, one of them was a bit frayed and Noel took that one. At the critical moment it gave and he fell some thirty feet on to a ledge. Some people thought that there might have been some chance of James going down with the other rope and getting him out, but he came straight down to the house for help. When they got Dr. Cengupta up there to him, he was dead. There was a tremendous amount of fuss and James took it all rather badly. Laura was prostrated and refused to see him or have anything to do with him, and so far as I know she has never spoken to him again. So you can see why she won’t exactly be encouraging Felicity to marry him!’
‘I certainly can,’ Sara said soberly. ‘What an awful thing to have happened. I’ll do anything I can to make things easier, but I’m afraid it won’t be very much. My aunt hardly knows me at all.’
‘That’s nice of you, my dear,’ Mrs. Halifax said gratefully. ‘But you mustn’t let my son’s affairs upset your life with your aunt.’
Sara reflected that one of her sons had already upset the even tenure of her life quite sufficiently for her to be glad of a diversion in the direction of someone else’s affairs. Aunt Laura would be so preoccupied with Felicity and James that she would hardly notice her niece’s adventure with the elder brother!
Sara thanked her for the lift to the hospital and slid out of the car on to the hospital steps.
‘Matt will be all right, won’t he?’ she asked, almost nonchalantly.
‘He’ll be down to see you in the morning!’ Mrs. Halifax assured her cheerfully. She watched Sara make her way into the hospital, returning her last wave of farewell. Then, with a very satisfied smile, she started out on the few miles back to her home.
It was a peculiar feeling to enter the hospital. It seemed just as if nothing had happened there since she had left it yesterday. Everything was exactly the same as though it had been waiting for her to come back before it resumed any of its activities. Then, walking past the ward, she saw the ebony head of the appendectomy who had been brought in and felt more normal again.
She knocked on Dr. Cengupta’s door with some trepidation. Doctors, she knew, expected their nurses to be perennially healthy and usually showed marked displeasure if any of them fell by the wayside.
‘Come in!’
She opened the door, bitterly conscious of the sight she must present and wished that she had taken the time to tidy herself in her own room first. But it was too late for such regrets, so she stood in the doorway as ill at ease as if she had been a first-year student reporting to Matron for some misdemeanour.
Dr. Cengupta looked up. ‘My dear Nurse Wayne,’ he said in his softest, most Eastern tones, ‘what have they been doing to you?’
She watched his attitude slowly change from being a colleague to being a doctor with herself as the patient and was suddenly aware exactly how ill she was feeling.
‘It’s my head!’ she said a little pathetically. ‘It aches so! Matt says it’s malaria, and he strapped me to a shield and walked me miles and made me take pills, but I feel so ill!’ Her voice rose to a slightly hysterical note at the end, and the doctor automatically came forward and took her pulse.
‘Bed for you,’ he said firmly. ‘I’ll call Nurse Lucy and she can help you undress. You’ll feel much better in the morning and we can see about you going home then.’
Sara had no ambition to argue with such a prescription. She allowed herself to be led away by the soft, surprisingly pink hands of Nurse Lucy and revelled in the luxury of being helped into a properly made bed that gave in all the right places, supporting her aching body as it drifted off on a cloud that was very near to unconsciousness.
‘You sure are in a bad way,’ Nurse Lucy told her, clucking her tongue against her teeth. ‘We was told you’d crashed, but that nasty bad mosquito, he had his bite long time ago!’
So Matt had been right as usual, she reflected. She had malaria. She turned over, pulled the sheet up under her chin and went to sleep.
‘So, Nurse Wayne, you are more the thing this morning, I think. I’ve told Miss Felicity that she may collect you before lunch and run you home. You gave us quite a fright!’ Dr. Cengupta shook his head admonishingly at her. Sara sat up cautiously, but her headache had completely gone and she felt very much better.
‘I gave myself rather a fright too,’ she said wryly. ‘I was all right until I saw you—’
‘I’m flattered!’ he smiled at her. ‘But seriously it is surprising that you kept on your feet so long. You will be keeping very quiet for a few days. Lying doggo!’
She gave him rather a wintry smile.
‘I felt better yesterday morning too!’ she said with
deep foreboding.
‘That is quite common with fever,’ he told her calmly. ‘It goes in cycles. But for you the worst is over. You will be quite all right at home now, if you go quietly.’
‘And when can I report back for work?’ Sara asked.
‘In a week, maybe,’ he determined, but nothing would make him give her an actual day to look forward to. ‘I shall come and check up on you,’ he promised her, and then left her to look in on his other patients.
It was all very unsatisfactory, Sara thought. To spend days at the manager’s house with very little to do would give her too much time to think in, and just now she was anxious to think as little as possible. She wanted work. Lots and lots of hard work.
Down the corridor, in the other ward, she could hear Nurse Lucy admonishing the appendectomy. She heard his retort sharply that one did nothing in hospital but wash, and Nurse Lucy’s laughter rang out, followed by a tart retort in the boy’s own language. There was silence after that and the brisk footsteps coming down the passageway. A minute later Lucy’s black face came round the door.
‘My, but you’re looking better,’ she said cheerfully. ‘I’ll come back in a moment!’
‘But, Lucy—’
The black head in its crisp white veil came back round the door.
‘Did — did you hear whether Mr. Halifax got back safely last night?’
A broad grin spread over Lucy’s face.
‘We sure did! The maintenance boy, he slipped over late last night. He comes fairly often,’ she added coyly. ‘Mr. Matt arrived just fine. You like him very well?’ she asked ingenuously.
Sara nodded. ‘Yes,’ she admitted, as much to herself as to the other girl.
‘He very fine man,’ Lucy agreed, and her grin shone out again. ‘I run a bath for you. Sonjo very dirty people. Very primitive.’
She shot off back down the corridor and Sara relaxed against her pillows. Matt was safe! There was no need to worry any more. And soon — perhaps very soon — he would come to inquire after her.
Felicity announced her arrival by the usual squeal of brakes. A few seconds later she burst into Sara’s room and flung herself on to the end of the bed.
‘It’s just too good to be true!’ she announced gaily. ‘But how, dear Sara, am I ever going to tell Mother?’
Sara met the speculative look in Felicity’s eyes calmly.
‘I think you and James should tell her together,’ she said firmly.
‘You don’t think someone else should break it to her first. Someone she likes, who would do it very gently?’
‘I do not.’
‘How very uncompromising of you,’ Felicity pouted. ‘I felt sure that you’d be only too willing to do such a small thing for me!’
Her eyes flashed with amusement. Not even the prospect of having to break the news of her engagement to her mother could subdue her happiness.
‘Oh, Sara!’ she whispered, ‘I had no idea that it would be anything like this!’
All the old lines of discontent had been wiped off her face as if by magic. It was hard to believe that a man such as James should have been able to do this for her, Sara reflected. She stirred uneasily beneath the bedclothes.
‘Are you quite sure?’ she asked tentatively.
Felicity gave a little sigh of resignation.
‘Not you too!’ she exclaimed. ‘Poor James! What possible chance has a man like him in this country? Can’t you see that he’s different? He may not fly aeroplanes very well, or enjoy burning himself to a crisp in this barren oven of a land, but those things don’t matter in a civilized country! And James has so many other things—’
‘Of course he has!’ Sara broke in, upset to think that she might have hurt her cousin. ‘That wasn’t what I meant at all—’
Felicity gave her a disbelieving glance. ‘Wasn’t it?’ she asked.
Sara flushed a little. ‘No, it wasn’t,’ she said more firmly. ‘I meant are you quite sure that James is the man for you? Living in England is very different from living out here, you know.’
Felicity’s eyes shone.
‘But that’s just it, Sara! I’ve always longed to live in Europe. I want to be in the centre of things and away from people who can talk about nothing but sisal! It’s all right for you, you’ve only just arrived and it’s still novel and quite interesting, but wait till you’ve been here some years! You’ll begin to wish that you’d never set eyes on a sisal plant!’
Sara found that quite unbelievable, though she very sensibly said nothing, for it was quite obvious that Felicity was completely carried away by the thought of the future in front of her. So she contented herself by saying:
‘I’m so glad for you, and of course I hope you’ll both be very happy. You can rely on me for moral support, but I’m not going to tell your mother!’
The two girls laughed.
‘Poor old Mum!’ Felicity sighed. ‘She’s in for a bad shock, I’m afraid, but James will be terribly nice to her and perhaps it will all blow over.’
Sara, a little more dubious about her aunt’s reactions, said nothing. She wished heartily that she could stay in the hospital until the storm had broken, but that was clearly impossible and so she began to dress, fighting her weak and wavery knees into obeying her commands. In the end, with Lucy’s help, she was ready and they made their way slowly out to the waiting jeep.
‘Don’t learn to drive too quickly,’ Felicity laughed at her. ‘I’m enjoying having it to run about in. It goes like the wind over the rougher patches, one scarcely feels any of the bumps at all!’
To prove her point she proceeded to drive at breakneck speed the whole way to the manager’s house, giggling with joy as the dry wind blew in their faces, tearing at their hair and causing Sara to grasp whatever she could to hold herself in.
The house looked a little sad and neglected. Standing on its hillock of dry red dust, it cried out for some paint and a garden bursting with flowers all around it. It would be fun, Sara thought, to see what she could do about it. With care perhaps the soil could be brought back to something that would allow some of the least demanding flowers to bloom. People should be fined, she thought a little indignantly, letting the earth get into such a condition!
So carried away was she with her future plans for the slopes that Felicity was already out of the jeep and up the steps and she had to hurry to catch her up. Felicity took her arm when she reached the verandah and they walked slowly round the house together towards the sitting-room door.
‘Will you call in and see Mother?’ Felicity asked.
Sara shook her head. ‘She won’t want to see me at this hour,’ she said.
But she was wrong, for hardly had the words left her lips than Mrs. Wayne appeared in the doorway, fully dressed and beaming a smile.
‘Sara, my dear,’ she greeted her, ‘you’ll never guess who has come to see you! I’ve been doing my poor best to entertain him, but I’m afraid that his mind was really with you all the time!’
She giggled her soft, feline little laugh and quite unaccountably Sara’s heart sank into her boots.
CHAPTER EIGHT
James Halifax looked far from cheerful when the two girls followed Mrs. Wayne into the drawing room. With a visible effort he greeted them, but almost immediately he sank back into his original gloom.
‘What’s up?’ Felicity demanded, her voice a little gruff.
James flushed up in that absurd way that he had.
‘I thought—’ he began.
‘James came to see Sara,’ Mrs. Wayne broke in, her eyes flickering over the little group of young people.
‘I wondered how he got in!’ Felicity murmured mutinously.
Her mother smiled, a soft, feminine smile that made Felicity’s remark seem unnecessarily ungracious.
‘James and I understand each other very well, don’t we?’ she said smoothly, and then apparently lost all interest in the proceedings as James stammered his agreement.
There was a shor
t uncomfortable silence. Sara wondered desperately what she could say to relieve the tension. Both James and Felicity looked unhappy and very young. Too young, she thought, to cope. I shall have to say something! she exclaimed to herself.
‘Have you had any news of Matt?’ she burst out. Matt! Matt! Why should she bring him up now? She cast a quick look at her aunt and was relieved to see that she was gazing out of the window with a dreamy look on her face. ‘I heard that he got home safely.’
‘Yes, yes, he did,’ James agreed. ‘He told me to come over. Told me to tell you he’d be over himself some time.’
He stuttered slightly as he tripped over the words. ‘I — I was hoping to have a word with you alone,’ he added.
Felicity’s head shot up, bewilderment written all over her face.
‘Why?’ she asked abruptly.
‘It’s — it’s just a message from Matt,’ he said uncomfortably.
Sara caught Mrs. Wayne’s look of complete satisfaction and cursed inwardly.
‘Let’s go out on to the verandah, then,’ she suggested quietly.
She turned quickly and walked through the french windows before James could answer. Her heart was pounding madly, she realized. Could just a message from Matt really do this to her? She gave herself an inward shake and turned to James.
‘Well?’ she asked a little coldly.
‘It was a bit awkward in there,’ he said with a wry grin. ‘I just wanted to ask you to help get Felicity’s mother in a good mood. I want Felicity to elope with me, you see—’
‘You can’t do that,’ Sara broke in positively. ‘Aunt Laura would never forgive you if you made her look so foolish. You must tell her, James. Nobody else is going to do it for you and a note simply won’t do!’
‘Felicity thought that you might—’
‘I know she did. She was wrong. You must tell her together.’