“I think he’s a wise and noble man!” Jane said heatedly. “I don’t know him, I’ve never heard of him until just now, but I think he ought to be honoured. But why did he work on something like that if he was determined to destroy the results of his work?” she concluded.
“He was working on something else when this worked out, a sort of by-line, I believe,” Kevin admitted. “They say he was horrified, as soon as the effects of his work had been proved,” he told her. “That’s stupid, and he doesn’t deserve to be the man to make such a wonderful discovery and then hide it, or worse, destroy it!”
“I still don’t see what all this has to do with either you or me.” Jane smothered a yawn. She was very tired, and all this talk seemed to be leading precisely nowhere. At the same time she was vaguely conscious that no one, least of all Dr. Jim, throughout all Seonyata, would approve of Kevin Dean’s being in her flat, alone, and at this hour of the night.
“If that’s all you’ve come about,” she rose, clearing the cups as a sign she wanted to get to bed, “I think you’d better go. I can’t see this has anything to do with anyone except Professor Leczinska and, if they’re so foolish, the New Thought members.”
“But it has,” Kevin protested eagerly. “That’s the point. I told you there would be a fabulous sum of money for whoever obtained the formula. I go to the laboratory often. I shall be going again one day next week. If you accompanied me you could keep the professor talking, and I’d find a way to get hold of his precious document. For one thing, I very much doubt of he could resist showing it to me. He’s very proud of having made this discovery, even though he intends to destroy it. It’s to be shown to some of the government chiefs next week, and once they see it or get their hands on it it’ll be lost for ever to anyone else. The movement have promised me a fifth of the total sum they’ll get for it. They’ll have more than enough left for the things they wish to do for their country.”
“The best thing they could all do,” Jane said briefly, “is to put their backs into a bit more work and stop being so unhelpful and dissatisfied with all the older people are doing for them. They should be preparing themselves for when it’s their turn to take over the running of things, not putting spanners into works they don’t even understand!”
“Then you won’t help me, Jane?” Kevin asked disconsolately. “It would be easy. You’d not even be questioned, as my companion, and I’m known well enough by all the guards and so on. I’ve often been, on business for St. George’s.”
“Then you ought to be even more ashamed of yourself than they ought to be!” Jane told him. “You aren’t a Dalasalavian. You’re a visitor, and it’s your country which’ll be disgraced if anything goes wrong and you’re found out! Apart from that,” she repressed a shudder as she thought how distasteful the whole thing was becoming, “to even contemplate what more or less amounts to stealing someone else’s property is scarcely the way to endear our projects to the community at large!”
“We’re not paid enough,” Kevin grumbled. “It’s all very well here, where there’s nothing on which one can spend money, but I’d like a nest egg to take home with me, and the Movement say they’ll put my share in a Swiss bank for me, when they’re paid themselves. With that amount of money I could buy a practice when I go home. I could settle down ... find the right wife,” he looked up suddenly, his eyes narrowing, “or take her home with me!” he suggested audaciously. “That might be an advantage if it came to a point! I don’t know much about law, but it runs in my mind that a wife may not give evidence for or against her husband ... and you are rather lovely, Jane.”
She was suddenly very angry, so angry that the emotion replaced the weariness she had felt earlier. All her enjoyment in the evening had been spoiled, and for that, more than for anything else, she felt she could never forgive him.
“Get out of my room, Kevin,” she said in a cold fury. “I don’t know why you came here in the first instance! You must have been aware I wouldn’t be a party to anything like this! I suggest you go to your own quarters and think this over. For my part, I’m convinced it’s never worth while to sacrifice one’s principles and one’s integrity for money! Especially when one isn’t in as great a need as millions of people all over the world!”
“Don’t start preaching, Jane!” Kevin said lightly. “It doesn’t suit you. You’re much too pretty, and too sweet. Think over what I’ve just told you and see if you don’t consider a nice little practice and a cosy house just big enough for two—with additions in due course, naturally—wouldn’t be worth taking some risks for. And at the same time, remember the risk is practically non-existent! If you don’t mind I’ll go this way,” he went on, and before she had sensed his intention he had pressed the light switch, leaving the room in darkness, then she heard him open the window which was situated on the opposite side of the room. There was a sudden cool breeze and the sight, in the darkened room, of her curtains flapping vaguely inwards, then Jane recovered herself and ran to the window to look out.
She saw Kevin slip down the fire escape at the end of the block and disappear rapidly in the direction of his own quarters. As she went back to switch the light on again she discovered to her horror that she was shaking from head to foot.
Jane sat on the edge of her bed and willed herself to pull herself together. This was more easily said than done, and as she sat there many thoughts chased themselves through her mind.
Ought she to go to Dr. Lowth and tell him what had happened? And if she did, what sort of terms would he believe she and Kevin to have been on to allow of that young man’s visit to her flat at this hour of the night, to say nothing of the unorthodox way in which he had left the room!
She thought about it all for a long time, even making herself fresh tea and smoking two of her unaccustomed cigarettes, one after the other, and yet she was no nearer a decision than she had been when Kevin had left. She thought about talking to Kevin in the morning as they worked together, for there were operations scheduled for the morning and Kevin would, as always, administer the anaesthetic. Gould she make him see the harm he might possibly do to St. George’s, to the hospital as a whole, to the entirety of Dr. Jim’s work for the community at large? She very much doubted that! Kevin wasn’t interested. He had, perhaps, been fired by enthusiasm when he had first come to the country, but now he didn’t care what became of Dalasalavia as a whole, all he wanted was the end of his term there to be brought to a satisfactory conclusion, and to have what he termed “a nest egg” in the bank when he went home.
And what would Dr. Jim think of herself? To Jane, that point loomed of greater importance than any other. Their evening together, which had been so wonderful and which had held the promise of other and perhaps more wonderful evening to come, was ruined, spoiled completely, by Kevin’s mere suggestion that she might be willing to help him hurt these people she had grown to like so much, and smirched, she felt, by his insulting proposal, if that was what his last few sentences could be called!
It was late when she at last slipped into bed, and later still when, dry-eyed and weary from staring into the darkness and striving to decide what was the best thing to do, she at length fell asleep.
She was wakened, as usual, by Amy Dawlish’s tap on her door, but for the first time since she had come to Seonyata Jane felt she could not immediately spring out of bed, she was so utterly weary. With an effort she forced herself to rise and bathe and dress in something more than her usual time, and when she was ready for duty she found she had neither the heart nor the inclination to make herself the cup of tea and slice of toast which had become her morning ritual.
“This won’t do!” she admonished herself firmly. “I’ll make my tea and toast, then I’ll go right down to Dr. Jim. Whatever he says or thinks, at least he’ll know what’s the best thing to do. He might well be able to get a warning to this Professor Leczinska, whoever he is, however well guarded the laboratory might be. I’m sure they’d allow communication between St. George
’s and the lab, which,” she reflected sadly, “is precisely what Kevin is banking on, I suppose.”
It was more awful to reflect about in the cold light of day than it had been in the hours of darkness, when there was no light by which she could see her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes were shadowed from lack of sleep, and she looked as worried as she felt.
“I don’t think Dr. Jim’ll find me very attractive this morning,” she thought grimly as she settled her cap on her head, “but that’s not important right now!”
She made herself eat her breakfast, finish her tea, then was just picking up her cloak when the sound she recognised came to her ears and, for no good reason at all, brought the chill of fear back to her heart. Karl Brotnovitch’s unmistakable tread was sounding on the corridor, coming nearer and nearer until it halted, as she had known it would, outside her door. .
She was trembling as she opened it, and without a word held the door wide open for him, conscious of the elderly caretaker’s head somewhere down the stairs. She was becoming as suspicious as everyone else, she told herself fiercely. She seemed to sense when that man was around, even if she could not see him, and yet he had never said anything else to her other than “good morning, Nurse” or “good evening, Nurse” all the time she had lived there.
“I may come in?” Karl asked as he stopped in the door. For a wild moment Jane considered saying, “No, I don’t want you”, but she knew that would be both futile and ungracious. She nodded instead, and picked up her cloak.
“I shall be late on duty, Inspector,” she said quietly. “What is it I can do for you?”
“Nothing, at the moment, Nurse,” Karl replied in his deep, clipped tones. “It is simply that I have come to repeat my warning to you, since you do not appear to be able to take heed of my words.”
“I don’t understand,” Jane said, her heart beating faster as his cold gaze held her own. “What have I done ... or not done?” She tried to make her tone sound light, but Karl’s expression did not change.
“I warned you about Dr. Dean,” he said gravely. “I warned you about the undesirable company you might find here, in Seonyata. It seems you do not heed warnings, Nurse. And you are too beautiful a young lady to be allowed to run into danger because of the foolishness of your heart.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Jane insisted, frightened.
Karl smiled, but the effect was not in the least reassuring. His eyes surveyed her from head to foot, and in his customary meticulous tone he continued:
“My sergeant tells me Dr. Dean was seen leaving your flat, but not by the customary exit, at an early hour of this morning. What you do with your private life, Nurse Kelsey, is no concern of mine or of the department’s. What does concern us is the safety of Dalasalavia and its people, and I am not in the least reassured that Dr. Dean means us well. No!” he held up a stern hand as she would have spoken. “Listen,” he ordered.
“Dr. Dean is known to have many friends amongst the community known as the New Thought Club. They are young,” he smiled, and for a moment Jane found herself wondering if he had ever known for himself what youth really meant.
“Most of them do not mean any harm,” he went on pontifically. “They are foolish in that they do not see that what is being done is being accomplished for their ultimate benefit, but they are impatient and would like to move things along a little faster. To that end they do not always behave wisely in what they would do’ in the name of progress, and, I am afraid, Dr. Dean is one of them, or at any rate one who aids and abets them, encourages them in all their wild ideas.”
“Well?” Jane felt foolish, but she did not know quite what she was being accused of, if of anything, and she did not intend to give Kevin away, not to this man. Dr. Jim would know how to deal with him, she reflected. Dr. Jim, she' felt certain, would convince the younger man of the stupidity of the course he was pursuing, and make him see wisdom.
“I think, if you reflect on all I have said to you since you first came to our country, Nurse, you will have no difficulty in realising what I am trying to say. I am telling you that Dr. Dean is under suspicion of activities subservient to the well-being of this land, and that, if you continue to associate with him, your name too will be added to the list of those my men watch all the time. That I do not wish to see, nor, do I think, would you wish it either. There is one way in which you are able to set yourself above such suspicion,” he said gravely. “Providing, of course, that Dr. Dean understands that his visits to you must be made at a proper time and in the proper manner! I assure you, dear Nurse Jane, that I have no doubt of your integrity in all things, but incidents such as this one reported to me by my sergeant, must cease forthwith. To prevent your name being added to the list I suggest you allow me to help you.”
“In what way?” Jane asked, glancing at her watch and wondering how on earth she could explain this late arrival to Dr. Jim.
“By becoming my wife.” Karl clicked his heels and bowed, but Jane’s hands—as always since their first meeting—were securely hidden behind her back. “As Madam Brotnovitch you would be entirely above suspicion.”
CHAPTER 8
WHATEVER anyone had offered at that moment, Jane could not have spoken to have saved her life. She could only stare at Karl Brotnovitch as though she could not believe her ears, as indeed she felt she could not. Had it not all been so serious she knew she would have collapsed into helpless laughter. First Kevin had practically asked her to marry him, although not exactly in so many words. His theme had been a cosy home, a nest-egg and a future of peace and calm for two or more, themselves and his nameless “additions”!
Now Karl Brotnovitch was standing there, obviously awaiting her answer. His proposal had nothing hidden, or had it? Whether it had or not it was no more welcome in the girl’s eyes than that of Kevin Dean had been, yet neither did he speak of love.
Karl wanted to marry her to “protect” her, but from what? Jane’s brain reeled as she tried to imagine some of the things which Karl obviously believed threatened her, but it was beyond all she could picture.
She knew he admired her and that he thought her colouring, especially her hair, beautiful, but nothing in his demeanour, his words or actions spoke of the love Jane knew was the right of every woman to expect from the man she marries.
The one man with whom she could ever dream of spending the rest of her life, the one man in the world she knew she would love to the end of her days, saw her as a nurse, as a good friend, a happy companion, and nothing more. It was tragedy and comedy mixed, and there was no one with whom she could hope to share the joke.
Karl was still looking at her, obviously awaiting her answer, and Jane knew she could not keep him standing there much longer. She made a tremendous effort to control the emotions which threatened to take charge of her face and her laughter, and pulled herself together.
“I’m well aware of the honour you’ve done me, Inspector,” she said gravely, “indeed, I’m overwhelmed, and I don’t know how to answer you.”
“There is no necessity to answer immediately, Nurse Jane,” Karl said with formality. “I quite understand. There has been neither time nor opportunity for me to show you what a wonderful life we two may live here, together. I am soon due for promotion. That will mean a larger house in a better part of the city, as well as almost doubling my salary, which is not inconsiderable. There is much to consider. Perhaps it will mean your parents would wish for me to visit them, or have them brought here to see where you will live?”
“I haven’t said I’ll marry you yet!” Jane reminded him, suddenly resentful of the way in which he appeared to be already arranging her life and that of so many other people without even pausing to consider them or their feelings.
“That is correct,” Karl bowed again, his eyes suddenly gleaming, “but I have no doubt whatsoever that when you pause to consider what it must mean to you to have a name which will be above reproach, a name which people will respect because of the position you
r husband holds, and the difference between that respect and the knowledge that your name has been added to the list of those persons whom the State suspect and must have watched...”
“My name has always been above reproach,” Jane said sharply. “And that of my family. I’m sorry, Inspector, but if you hope to have the answer you wish obtained by means of threats I’m certain have no foundation in reality, then I must tell you that that’s not the way to succeed with me or any other girl with my background!” She had not meant to speak so harshly or so sharply, and the colour rose in her cheeks, dying them crimson. Karl bowed again, obviously moved by her evident distress and displeasure.
“Then we will leave the matter until both of us have completed our duties for the day,” he said stiffly. “I am always to be—how does Dr. Jim say it—‘on call’—for there is no one as yet to take my place, no one of equal rank, that is. What time do your own duties terminate, Nurse Jane?”
“I ... I’m not certain,” Jane hedged. “Couldn’t we leave it until tomorrow night?” she pleaded. She must have time to talk with Dr. Jim about this, to find out what was the best wav of dismissing the would-be amorous attentions of the Chief of Police without also causing more offence.
“That will be most agreeable,” Karl returned with the formality she knew now as a part of him. “I will present myself here, tomorrow evening, at around the hour of nine o’clock. That,” he confided almost boyishly, “is the time I usually take my coffee break, but,” his tone was once more serious, the “official” tone, “I shall still be on call and my driver will have to await my return outside in the event of any messages coming through which require my attention.”
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