by Betty Neels
‘Please don’t bother about me. I shall go to my brother’s in any case for a short time.’
‘Ah, yes,’ she heard the faint mockery in his voice, ‘and from what you have told me, you will enjoy that.’
They had arrived at the schoolhouse. She made a small frustrated sound and got out of the car and went inside to where the last remnant of their patients awaited them.
CHAPTER NINE
THEY WERE finished before midday. The last patient went through the door and the clearing up began at once and was quickly done now that there was a sufficiency of nurses and helpers. Ivo had a brief conversation in Dutch with his father and then said to Julia,
‘You’ll go home with Father, please, I shan’t be coming home just yet,’ and then to his father, this time in English, ‘You’ll do those visits for me? I’ll fit in the rest when I come back.’
He lifted a hand to them both and went away and a little later Julia got into Doctor van den Werff’s car and went back to the house. But when they arrived he made no effort to get out with her, remarking mildly,
‘No, I’m not coming in—I’ve a couple of visits, I’ll do them now. Don’t wait lunch—I’ll get some coffee and something to eat.’
He reversed the car and shot back down the lane. He drove with the same speed and skill as his son, and Julia, watching him go, felt a little pang, because she liked him very much. It was a pity that his wife had died ten years ago; Jorina had told her that her parents had been devoted to each other and that they had been—still were—a close-knit family. Julia went into the house, thinking that at least he would never be lonely with his grandchildren of the future visiting him at Sneek. He would be a delightful grandfather, just as Ivo would be a delightful father to his children, which, thought Julia sourly, would be a good thing if they were to have Marcia for a mother.
She found Marcia already in the dining room and with a brief hullo she sat down opposite her and helped herself to coffee, and because she didn’t want Marcia to know how worried she was, she ate a good lunch, choking down every mouthful with a determination which did her credit, while Marcia, in a silence which could be felt, watched her. They separated after the meal, Marcia to return to the sitting room and Julia to go to her room where she wrote a letter to her brother, a letter which took some time and much thought before she was satisfied with it. It was almost four o’clock by the time she was ready and she went downstairs again; there would be tea presently in the sitting room. She went in and was at once aware that a storm was about to break over her head.
Marcia was sitting by the fire, not in her usual graceful semi-recumbent position, but upright, ready to do battle, her fingers beating a tattoo on the book she was holding. Julia watched the fingers, thankful to know that Marcia was as nervous as she was, and decided not to sit down. She felt, quite erroneously, that while she was on her feet she had a slight advantage. She wandered over to the old gilded mirror hanging beside the fireplace and composedly straightened her cap, waiting for her companion to speak. She didn’t have to wait very long; Marcia flung her book from her and said in a high voice,
‘I suppose you think I can’t see through your little game, Nurse Pennyfeather. Ivo would be a fine catch for a penniless half-educated girl such as you are, wouldn’t he? You could lead a lady’s life, no doubt. I wonder what you did in order to persuade him to bring you here in the first place—and ruby earrings indeed! I wonder what you did to get those?’
She paused, staring at Julia with spiteful eyes, and Julia, her teeth clenched to guard a fierce impulsive tongue, carefully tucked a stray end under her cap and miraculously said nothing.
‘You’ve forced yourself upon him; do you think I haven’t seen you laughing at him and talking silly nonsense to make him laugh too—getting lost in order to attract attention to yourself; pretending that you’re interested in learning Dutch? Well, it’s done you no good, has it? I talked to Ivo, you see— Oh, I didn’t tell tales, I’m not such a fool,’ she laughed, ‘but I suggested this and hinted at that and let a few things drop…he thinks nothing of you now; once you’re back in England he’ll forget you, and you can go when you like—you’re no longer my nurse.’
‘As to that,’ said Julia calmly, ‘I don’t feel I can do that. Doctor van den Werff is my employer, you know. I’ll go when he tells me to. You could of course ask him to dismiss me, but you would have to give some reason for that. You tried once before without much success, didn’t you?’ She took out her compact and powdered her beautiful nose, and the action calmed her so that she was able to ask without heat,
‘Why do you want Ivo to think you’re in love with him? It would be easy enough to tell him that you wanted to marry Mijnheer de Winter, wouldn’t it?’
Marcia smiled. ‘You’re a fool, aren’t you? I shall go on letting Ivo think that I’m in love with him until you’ve gone back to England, then I can drop him when I’m ready, once August…’ She paused and asked with genuine astonishment, ‘You don’t think I’ll step down for you, do you?’
Julia turned back to the mirror and started, quite unnecessarily, on her hair once more because it would keep her calm and she needed all the calm she could muster. She was about to speak when she saw that the half-open door reflected in the mirror had been opened wider and Ivo was standing there. She had no idea how long he had been there or how much he had heard. She drew a deep breath to stop the pounding of her heart and raised her voice, speaking in loud clear tones, calculated to reach his ears.
‘No,’ she said, ‘I didn’t, but I’m not quite a fool, you know. You never needed a nurse; I imagine that you were walking quite well some time before I came. I wondered about that a lot, but it wasn’t until yesterday afternoon when I saw you and Mijnheer de Winter kissing each other that I knew for certain. You’ve been using Ivo for your own ends, haven’t you, because you don’t love him, do you? You have no idea what loving someone is, although you and Mijnheer de Winter enjoy a desiccated form of it, I suppose—quoting Latin tags.’ She turned away from the mirror and looked at Marcia. ‘How dare you,’ she was speaking, if anything, louder than ever in her anxiety that Ivo shouldn’t miss a word, ‘use Ivo to egg on that miserable little man—Ivo’s worth a hundred of him!’ She saw, out of the corner of her eye, that Ivo had moved. ‘I said you were a fraud and a harpy, and I’ll say it again…’
She was interrupted by Ivo’s voice, so cold that it sent a shiver down her spine. ‘That will do, Julia, and you had no reason to raise your voice like that, you know, I heard you very easily. Perhaps you would be good enough to leave us. I think Marcia and I have—er—a misunderstanding to clear up.’
He was standing in front of her now and when she looked at him and met his eyes, it was to find them hooded like his father’s and the calmness of his face told her nothing. She turned on her heel and left them together.
It took her just under ten minutes to change out of her uniform and into her outdoor clothes, and in that time, too, she packed her case. It took her another two minutes to write a very brief note to Doctor van der Werff and count the money in her purse. She had ample to get her back to England and once she was there she didn’t much mind what happened. She closed her door soundlessly, then went quietly down the stairs and out of the front door and down the lane to the road. Her case was heavy, but she didn’t notice that; she was busy trying to remember about buses and trains and boats to England; she would go to Oisterwijk first, because she could catch a bus to Tilburg from there, and in Tilburg she could get on a train to Rotterdam and go on to the Hook of Holland in time to pick up the night boat. She had plenty of time, even allowing for the walk to Oisterwijk, and she thought it unlikely that anyone would notice her absence for an hour or two and by then she would be in the train, and Ivo and Marcia would have had their talk and cleared up their misunderstandings and either become reconciled—with a suitable Latin tag, she thought wildly, or agreed to part, in either case they would be far too concerned with their own affairs
to worry about her.
She shivered in the cold wind and looked doubtfully at the sky, along whose horizon great sulky clouds were piling themselves; it only needed to snow. She walked on steadily, her mind quite empty of thought now, although now and again she looked behind her at the singularly empty road, because hope dies hard and although she tried to damp down the thought, Ivo might come after her. She had thought once or twice hat he might love her a little, but now she didn’t know any more. If he did he would surely follow her; she took one final look down the empty road. Apparently he wasn’t going to; she must be out of her mind to even entertain the idea.
She reached the bus stop at last and joined the queue, which wasn’t a queue at all but just a large group of people who, when the bus arrived, would jostle and push their way on to it in a good-natured and ruthless manner; she would have to be ruthless too; it would never do to he left behind. She put down her case and looked about her. Her companions were mostly women with shopping baskets and children, although there were one or two men, standing rock firm, well to the front. She hoped the bus would be along soon and wouldn’t be too full as she looked nervously at the sky. As she did so a snowflake fell softly on to her nose.
The Jensen snarled to a halt beside her and Ivo got out, put her case on the back seat and said in a voice which gave nothing away,
‘Get in, Julia.’ She didn’t budge, and the women on either side of her turned to look, arranging their baskets comfortably over their arms; it was dull waiting for the bus and here was a small diversion—besides, they knew Ivo by sight. He smiled at them and raised his hat and murmured, ‘Dag, Dames,’ and they chorused a ‘Dag, Doctor,’ back at him, pleased to be recognised. He said something else to them too, to make them smile and nudge each other and stare with curious friendly eyes at Julia.
‘Don’t be pig-headed, dear girl,’ he said in English, ‘they’re on my side.’ He laughed a little and she found her voice at last, treacherously shaky.
‘I couldn’t care less,’ she said pettishly, and then, because she couldn’t help herself, ‘How did you know I’d be here?’
‘A process of elimination.’ His voice was very decided as he went on, ‘Now get in, my dear, because the car’s on a bus stop and I’m in grave danger of getting a procesverbaal.’
She didn’t know what that was, but it sounded official and she concluded that it was, for as the car slid away from the pavement a policeman on a bicycle came towards them in a purposeful way. Ivo waved to him and the man looked at him and smiled and cycled on. Ivo turned the car and sped back the way she had come, all without saying a word. It was only when, to her bewilderment, they had passed the house and he had turned the Jensen into a country road leading out into the heath that he slowed his pace and asked gently,
‘Dear heart, why did you go, without a word to anyone and in such a hurry?’ and when she made a small sound of protest: ‘Oh, I’ve got your note to Father in my pocket. Tell me.’
She savoured the delight of being his dear heart and then said in a low voice, ‘I couldn’t have stayed. You see, it was deliberate—all the things I said to Marcia; I saw you in the mirror and I wanted you to hear, and then I—I thought how awful if you loved her after all and I’d spoilt it all for you for always, so I went away quickly because it wouldn’t have taken you long to discover—Marcia would have…’
Julia stopped speaking because she felt like crying and she would have to conquer her desire to burst into tears before she could continue.
‘I had no idea that you were such a virago,’ remarked Ivo on a half laugh, ‘but I did tell you to leave well alone, Julia, my darling. Do you think that I am blind—though I have been blind, haven’t I? But I had to talk to de Winter and make sure that I was justified in breaking the imaginary understanding I was supposed to have with Marcia.’
Julia heaved a gulping sob. ‘Oh, dear,’ she sounded forlorn, ‘I needn’t have said any of those awful things, but I didn’t know…’ She looked out of the car window and said uncertainly, ‘I got lost here…’
Ivo had halted the car. He got out and went round the bonnet, helped her out and took her arm and started walking over the bone-hard ground towards the woods.
‘So did I, my dear darling, at least my heart did—to you.’ He stopped and turned her round to face him, then bent his head and kissed her mouth. ‘That’s not quite true,’ he said a long minute later, ‘I lost it when you opened the door at Drumlochie House and told me in your lovely voice to hurry up and come in out of the cold. My Julia, I’ve not been cold since because you warm me with your sweetness and gaiety and beauty. But it was here I found you curled up asleep and I knew when I saw you that I couldn’t go on without you. I’ve brought you here to tell you so.’
They had reached the edge of the trees by now and he stopped again, but Julia held back a little. ‘Marcia,’ she demanded, ‘did she mind?’
Ivo shook his head. ‘I don’t imagine so—you see, de Winter said that he would come and fetch her within the hour and she and I—we had known that we had no feeling for each other, and you know why I couldn’t break with her, not until I knew for certain about de Winter. She’ll marry him and live happily ever after.’
‘Reading Greek poetry to each other,’ said Julia, and added in a doubtful voice, ‘I’m not a clever girl,’ and was gathered close and kissed by way of a very satisfactory answer.
‘My darling girl, I want a wife, not a walking dictionary. A wife who is so beautiful that I can’t stop looking at her or thinking about her and who buys extravagant clothes and wants diamonds for her birthday and makes bread and loves children—and loves me.’
‘I like the bit about the diamonds,’ said Julia. ‘It’s very tempting, but I can’t say yes if you don’t ask me.’
She stared up at him, her face glowing and her eyes bright and Ivo said, ‘I should have asked you the moment I set eyes on you. Will you marry me, my darling Julia?’
Julia smiled. ‘Yes, thank you, Ivo, I will. Indeed I don’t know what else I would have done if you didn’t want me.’
There was only one answer to a remark like that. When at length Ivo loosed her, he asked, ‘Do you know which day it is, my dearest?’
Julia, deep in her own delightful thoughts, frowned. ‘December the twenty-ninth,’ she said at length.
‘The fifth day of Christmas,’ said Ivo. ‘You said once that five gold rings would be more than any girl could want and I said it was a way in which her true love could prove to her that he loved her.’
He took an arm from her shoulders and plunged a hand into his pocket, then opened his hand to show her what he held.
‘You see? I went to the Hague and got them after I had seen de Winter. I couldn’t think of a better way of convincing you that I love you and always shall.’
He looked at her very tenderly as he pushed the fur bonnet back so that he could hook the little gold rings in her ears. ‘I cheated a little with this one,’ he said as he fastened the gold bracelet on one wrist, ‘but not with this.’ He pulled off her glove and slipped a gold ring, set with three most beautiful diamonds, on to her finger. ‘And this one—you’ll have to wait for this one, my dearest, until we marry.’
Julia watched the diamonds sparkle in the deepening dusk and then stretched up to kiss him. ‘Thank you five times, darling Ivo, and when will that be?’
His arm tightened around her so that she could scarcely breathe.
He said, ‘We’ll wait until the polio scare is over, then we’ll go to England and I’ll get a special licence. Unless you want a grand wedding with a cake and bridesmaids?’ He kissed her gently and then with great fierceness. ‘In which case we should have to wait. Please don’t make me wait, Julia.’
She closed her eyes with resolution upon a tantalizing vision of herself in white satin and a tulle veil. She said clearly, ‘I don’t want to wait either, Ivo.’ She paused to smile at him. ‘We’ll find a small church in the country and just get married.’
She was going to enlarge upon this idea, but was prevented from doing so because Ivo kissed her again, a long, gentle, satisfying kiss. When she had her breath again she added, ‘I shall, of course, wear my five gold rings!’
ISBN: 978-1-408-98212-9
The Fifth Day of Christmas
© Betty Neels 1971
First Published in Great Britain in 1971
Harlequin (UK) Limited
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