Honey

by Mary Burchell

  CHAPTER FIVE

  DURING the next few days, life at St. Margaret's followed a well-worn pattern, as far as Honey was concerned. There were some exciting moments when she displayed her ring to her immediate associates, but otherwise, particularly to her superiors in office, she was just one of the nurses once more. Meanwhile, preparations and plans for Founder's Day began to take precedence over everything else during off-duty time. Founder's Day at St. Margaret's was the big day of the year. The Mayor and Mayoress of Forchester always graced the occasion, and all the hospital board attended, in addition to various other local notabilities. By some special favor of Providence, it was nearly always a glorious day, and, as the grounds of the hospital were exceptionally large and beautiful, the whole event tended to take on the character of some immense garden party. Wards were decorated, not as lavishly as for Christmas, but with a profusion of summer flowers. All the patients who could be moved onto balconies or out of doors took part in the open-air part of proceedings. Inevitably there were a certain number of speeches, varying in length but usually referred to by their perpetrators as "a few brief words," however inappropriate that description might be in some cases. And of course tea was lavishly served throughout the 79 afternoon, in a big marquee on the center lawn. Everyone, from the senior surgeon to the most junior nurse, was entitled to have two visitors on this occasion. And all over the green lawns and shady paths were dotted small family groups, each one centered on a student or nurse whose boastful instructiveness was usually in inverse proportion to his or her length of experience. On previous Founder's Days Honey had been on ward duty. But, as only an emergency operating room was kept open on this day, she was completely free to enjoy her parents' visit on this particular occasion. And when she saw them coming toward her across the lawn, she was not quite sure ^whether she was more proud to introduce them to St. Margaret's or St. Margaret's to them. Her mother looked remarkably pretty, and her father sufficiently distinguished to be not only the father of a third-year nurse but the prospective fatherin-law of one of the principal surgeons. "Only, of course," thought Honey a little confused, "that doesn't really apply." "It all looks lovely, darling," her'mother said, embracing her affectionately. "Almost a pleasure to be ill in such a selling. Though I suppose," she added candidly, "everyone makes that silly remark, without meaning it any more than I do." "Is John coming?" asked Mr. Milward, perhaps somewhat overwhelmed by the disproportionate number of females on the scene. "I hope so," Honey said, kissing him. "But he may be a bit late, as he has to come from London." "Madame Seroni called to say that she would be coming," observed Mrs. Milward. "She sounded very 80 friendly and was particularly anxious to know if we would be here. She's bringing another member of the family with her. A sister of John's who has just arrived from America." "A sister. ..." "Oh, Honey darling," interrupted Mrs. Milward, apparently quite unaware of the expression of consternation on her child's face. "I didn't notice your ring until this moment! Let me look at it. How perfectly beautiful! There's nothing quite like a single diamond, particularly when the setting is so lovely. I remember so well when I was choosing my own...." "Mother, what did you say about John's sister arriving from America?" interrupted Honey, quite unable to embark on an academic discussion of engagement rings without first having her anxiety on this point satisfied. "I told you, dear. She has been living in America... ." "Yes, yes, I know that bit. But do you mean she has arrived? She's here?" "I understand so ... yes. In fact... of course. Because she is coming here this afternoon with Madame Seroni." "But she wasn't supposed to leave America until the day before yesterday. And she was coming by boat." "Well, I suppose she changed her mind, my dear. Why not?" inquired Mrs. Milward, to whom a change of mind quite often commended itself. "Then she won't have seen John. Unless she saw him as she came through London." "No, she didn't come through London." Mrs. Upward said. "I remember now. Madame Seroni explained that her plane had been diverted for some 81 reason. Engine trouble or something of the sort. And so she came on here, as she meant to spend a few days with Madame Seroni in any case." "So that he won't have had lime to ... to explain about our engagement?" "Never mind, darling. I'm sure Madame Seroni has explained everything beautifully, so what's the difference?" asked her mother mildly. "I just thought it would be better. . . ." Honey's voice trailed away. She tried to pull herself together and believe that there was no reason to panic. After all, she told herself, there was no need^to feel so bereft and unprotected, just because Dr. Anston was not there to help her tackle this particular interview. He was not so important in every phase of her life, surely? ' But even as she assured herself of this, her mother exclaimed in a pleased tone, "Here they are!" And, with an unaccountable sinking of her heart, .Honey saw the impressive figure of Madame Seroni approaching her. Beside her, was a tall elegant woman who must, she supposed, be Dr. Anston's sister. With a gracious little wave of her hand, usually reserved for much larger audiences, Madame Seroni bore down upon the Milwards like a handsome yacht in full sail. There was a flurry of introductions, and Honey found her hand taken in firm, cool fingers that had a touch of the same purposeful strength as John's, and a pleasant voice said, "So this is Honey?" "We ... didn't expect you quite so soon," Honey explained shyly. "Dr. AnJohn thought you would be coming by boat." 82 "That was the original arrangement. But there have been a lot of last-minute changes." Deborah Naylor smiled at Honey in a way that reminded one of her brother. "I'm staying here for only a month, after all...." "A month!" For some quite inexplicable reason, Honey was aghast, instead of profoundly relieved, as she should have been. "Yes. Then I'm returning to the States for a few weeks, just to settle up our affairs there," John's sister went on. "My husband has been offered a very good position in the firm's London office, and so we're returning home for good." "For... for good?" stammered Honey, and a sudden chill crept down her spine. "Yes. It's all quite unexpected, of course. But doubly welcome now that John is getting married. I should have simply hated missing all the fun. Now I shall be in on it all," declared Deborah Naylor warmly. "I do understand!" exclaimed Mrs. Milward, visibly moved by this evidence of interest in her daughter's affairs./'Isn't it splendid. Honey dear?" "Splendid," echoed Honey dear, in a hollow voice. And, almost before her eyes, as it were, her pretended engagement to Dr. Anston began to take on inescapable reality. Weddings, so she had been assured, were the breath of life to Deborah Naylor, and she could well believe it. For already this charming, determined, efficient creature obviously saw herself steering things to a satisfactory conclusion, in a general aimosphere of confetti and orange blossom. It was greatly to Honey's social credit that, during 83 the whple of that first hour with Deborah, she some how contrived to conceal the fact that she was completely horrified by the prospect of her returning to live in England. "Such a delightful coincidence that it should be just now that you're returning to live here," Mrs. Milward said sincerely. And Honey actually managed to murmur, "Yes, indeed!" with a shy but completely convincing smile. "I can't tell you how much I've wanted to see John happily married," Deborah declared, with a degree of feeling that obviously commended itself to Mrs. Milward but secretly depressed Honey. "He's a darling, you know," Deborah went on, "and so clever, but just a bit too reserved and withdrawn. Though I don't expect you know that side of him. Honey," she added with a good-humored laugh. Honey said with some feeling that, on the contrary, she knew exactly what Deborah meant. "Well, men get like that, I guess, when they're wrapped up in their work or their hobby," Dr. Anston's sister continued reflectively. "And to John his surgery is both." "We heard him speak about his work in a lecture," Mrs. Milward hastened to explain. "And we were enormously impressed by his attitude toward it. He was very amusing and charming, but one felt" she dropped her voice impressively"that he is a dedicated person." "Yes, indeed." Deborah seemed to like the phrase. "But that's all the more reason for his needing a wife i.n the background. A pretty, charming, intelligent wife like you. Honey. She smiled so warmly and approvingly that Honey felt like a drea
dful fraud. 84 "Above all, he needs someone who can appreciate and understand his work. That's why this match is ideal. Really, it will be the happiest day of my life when I see you tWo married," she finished, with what was obviously some exaggeration, but a genuinely felt emotion. "Yes," said Honey, in answer to all this. And then, because the one monosyllable seemed so ungracious and inadequate, she felt bound to add, though blushing for her falseness, "It will naturally be the happiest day of my life too." The others all smiled sympathetically, evidently mistaking the cause of the blush. Even her father looked somewhat moved, while Madame Seroni said, with some emotion, that this would be an occasion when she would feel justified in emerging from semiretirement, and that she hoped to sing at Honey's wedding. "Oh, Madame Seroni!" exclaimed Mrs. Milward, obviously remembering those command performances of The Messiah and thinking delightedly of her child's wedding in the same category. And although she was, of course, much too polite to say that wouldbe one over Miss Emms, to Honey at least it was patent that this unworthy thought was passing through her mother's mind. It was frightening to think how many disappointments were in store for people she loved or liked. But still more frightening was the curious conviction that when Deborah Naylor set her heart on anything it almost invariably came to pass. "I only have to say 'no,' " Honey kept on telling herself. "I only have to be firm about breaking off the engagement." But she glanced at the pleasant, 85 strong-featured face of Dr. Anston's sister and wondered how one could match such firmness. They all strolled about the sunlit grounds for a while. The older ladies at any rate were more interested in the delightful discussion of personal matters than in anything to do with the hospital or its founder. Then Honey suggested that they should come in to see some of the wards, and Deborah said she would at any rate like to see where her brother worked. So Honey took them all along to the operating room, which looked oddly unfamiliar in its silent and deserted condition. In spite of Madame Seroni's declaration that it gave her the creeps, they all seemed anxious to hear whatever Honey had to tell them. She was in the middle of an impromptu lecture on operating routines when Dr. Anston arrived. "John!" His sister flung her arms around him and greeted him with an affectionate warmth that he obviously returned. For a few minutes there was nothing but a spate of explanations. John, like Honey a little while earlier, emerged from the torrent of words with one fact perfectly clear. "You say," his voice was studiedly calm and deliberate, "that you and Ronald are returning here to live." ' "Yes, Yes! I'm here for a month." His sister was only too willing to recapitulate her happy tale. "Then I return to the States to settle up everything. It shouldn't take longer than five or six weeks, and then, back home to England for good. And to think that it's all so well timed, that I shall be here for all the wedding preparations, and the actual ceremony! It's 86 hardly to be believed." She beamed happily at them. "Hardly to be believed," agreed John, meeting Honey's gaze without flinching. "I'm so happy about it all," Deborah exclaimed, with so much good feeling that everyone had to smile sympathetically. "And dear Honey says, of course, that it will be the happiest day other life." "Did dear Honey really say that?" John looked at Honey with something like amused congratulation. For a moment his gray eyes warmed and sparkled in a way she would not have thought possible. "Naturally," said Honey demurely. To which Dr. Anston merely murmured, "Dear giri!"and drew her arm through his. Then, turning to the others, he asked, "Has Honey been doing the honors in the operating room?" "Very inadequately, darling," said Honey, feeling he deserved that, after involving her in such a dilemma. But he took the endearment in his stride, sarcastic though he must have known it to be, and, lightly kissing the side other cheek, he said, "I'm sure you did it beautifuIJy. But this is all (oo much of a busman's holiday. Shall we go and have tea now?" This suggestion commended itself to all, and a move was made in the direction of the grounds and the big marquee. Even Deborah realized that Honey and her devoted fiance would naturally wish to have a few precious minutes together. So, hard though it was not to appropriate her brother at this moment, she joined the others and walked on ahead, leaving the happy couple to follow more slowly. Thus it was that Honey wa$ able to say in a small, grim voice, "And where do we go from here?" ^ 87 "I'm sorry. It's a most unexpected complication," John conceded, a little too carelessly she thought. "But there's no need to panic." "I'm not panicking," said Honey, who had at least been very near it at one point. "I just want you to know that I'm furious, and that I think I must have been stark staring mad ever to take this thing on and expect you to steer me clear of disaster." "My charming and furious Honey," he said with that very slight but personal smile that always reassured the most nervous of his patients, "are you trying to tell me that you've lost faith in my power to deal with the situation?" "I... I... not exactly." said Honey, much more pacifically, because, when he spoke like that. Dr. Anston seemed so completely capable of dealing with any situation. "It's just that it makes me nervous when your sister so openly rejoices in the wedding details, and your aunt says graciously that she'll sing an anthem or something. I can see my mother planning out my trousseau almost before my eyes. The whole thing is beginning to seem so real that I can almost smell the orange-blossom and hear the bells ring." "I'm so sorry. It does sound real. put like that," agreed John. But, though his words were sympathetic, he laughed rather heartlessly. "I've had to remind myself deliberately, for most of the past hour, that the whole thing is a masquerade and simply cannot turn into the real thing," Honey said severely. "You'd hate it so much, of course, if it did turn into the real thing, wouldn't you?" Dr. Anston returned lightly. "I don't think," said Honey, drawing her arm away, 88 "that's even a good joke." She spoke reproachfully. "No," he agreed, rubbing his chin reflectively. "I think perhaps you're right. It wasn't even a good joke." And then his sister, unable to spare him any longer, even to the most devoted of fiancees, turned and waited for them to come up with her. "John, dear," she said, "there's so much (Q discuss that I don't even know where to begin." Then she proceeded to make a very handsome beginning. By the time they'reached the marquee. Honey was no longer called on to do more than smile, look happy and add an occasional enthusiastic assent to Deborah Naylor's eager planning. With a sort of abandoned recklessness Honey agreed to everything that his sister proposed. In some obscure way, she managed to hold Dr. Anston responsible for this. After all, if she were not to oppose anyone on the vital issue of the wedding itself, if she were not to be allowed to say that the whole thing was one gigantic mistake and fraud, then it seemed somewhat pointless to argue the toss over the number of bridesmaids, or the number of guests, or the place for the ceremony and reception. "A hospital wedding would be lovely," iDeborah Naylor declared. "Nurses forming a guard of honor, patients waving from the windows and all that sort of thing." She made a vague but comprehensive gesture that seemed to sketch in the scene before their eyes. Mrs. Milward, however, had other ideas. "But there's nothing more beautiful and touching than a village wedding," she countered quickly. "And we have such a lovely village church, and the vicar christened Honey.. .." Tears filled her eyes at this 89 moving recollection, although, in point of fact. Honey had disgraced them all on that occasion by howling throughout the ceremony. "I don't think Honey would want to be married anywhere else. Would you darling?" "And then one must think of Miss Emms and the other institute members," put in Honey's father slyly, thus saving her from the necessity of making an immediate decision. "Exactly!" Mrs. Milward took this up in all earnestness. "They were all so thrilled with John when he came to speak to them. They feel that in some way he almost belongs to them- And then, of course, most of them have known Honey since she was a little girl." And, at the thought of this beautiful continuity of village interest, Mrs. Milward really did have to touch her handkerchief to her eyes. "Yes, I do see:... Oh really, I see your point absolutely," Deborah conceded with immediate generosity. At which the two ladies fell into an enjoyable discussion about floral decorations, undeterred by the fact that the wedding date had not yet been fixed,
and that it was therefore impossible to say what flowers would be available. "And what do you say to all this?" inquired Dr. Anston softly of Honey. "Do you vote for me to lead you to the village altar, or does the idea of the hospital chapel seem more attractive?" Honey shot him an angry glance from under her gold-tipped lashes, and only just bit back an explosive, "Neither, thank you, at any price!" For she thought that, having involved her in this situation, he might at least have had the grace to refrain from teasing her about it. It was surely enough that 90 her mother and his sister must discuss it in all its details, without his inviting her, quite gratuitously, to join in the discussion. So, except for that one angry, but beautiful, glance at him, she pretended not to hear him and turned instead to talk to her father. This was a very welcome diversion, since Madame Seroni, apropos her own part in the ceremony, was putting Mr. Milward through his paces on the subject of English church music and finding him sadly wanting. For a few minutes Honey managed to talk to her father about what she secretly characterized to herself . as "sane subjects." But then the conversation became general once more, and she heard her mother say, "It's so refreshing to find a sister so devotedly interested in her brother's affairs. I'm sure we are all going to enjoy this wedding even more for having you with us, Mrs. Naylor." Deborah Naylor said that was very sweet of Mrs. Milward. But Dr. Anston grinned sardonically and remarked, "My sister is an inveterate match-maker, Mrs. Milward. She has been finding prospective wives for me ever since I was old enough to refuse (hem. Why; she even had one who was coming over on the boat with her: Isn't that right, Deborah?" "Oh, well...." Deborah laughed a little self-consciously and even had the grace to blush slightly, though she was evidently not seriously put out bv her brother's teasing. "So, you see, I had to get engaged to Honey, in sheer self-defense," declared Dr. Anston, taking what Honey considered to be an almost fiendish pleasure in giving the truth every appearance of an amusing 9' lie. She couldn't understand why he did this. "Millicent wouldn't really have done," his sister admitted thoughtfully. "I realize that now I've seen Honey." And she smiled so approvingly at Honey that Honey's parents could not hide their gratification and made only the feeblest attempt to a graceful appearance of finding Deborah's praise a little excessive. This atmosphere of harmony persisted throughout tea. But, before the party split up to go their separate ways, Deborah insisted that another important decision must be taken. "You must come to London, my dear," she assured Honey, "and slay with me at the Gloria. Your mother too, of course. When can you have a few days' leave?" "Leave? Oh, I have no leave left," Honey declared in panic. "Yes, you have, darling," her mother reminded her. "You must have at least three days' leave owing to you, after going back on duty to oblige Matron. Don't you remember?" Reluctantly, Honey remembered. "But we're terribly busy," she insisted anxiously. "I think it would be impossible" "I'm sure it could be managed," interposed Dr. Anston smoothly, and Honey restrained with difficulty a desire to kick his ankle under the table. "What makes you think that?" she inquired a little coldly. "Things can always be arranged if one wants them sufficiently," he said coolly. "You tell that to Sister!" "I will," said Dr. Anston almost carelessly,-and Honey was reduced to silence. Deborah was delighted. "John and I," already speaking for her brother in his matrimonial affairs, "naturally want you to meet^ some of our friends. Honey dear. And it isn't too soon to think about trousseau shopping either. Dear me! What fun this is all going to be!" Mrs. Milward cordially echoed this sentiment and was obviously so pleased at the idea of a few days' shopping and festivityin London that Honey felt it was mean of her to want to veto the entire arrangement. Besides, since she was the chief figure in the drama, she supposed she should at least try to match the enthusiasm of the others. And presently, to her mingled chagrin and astonishment, she found herself expressing something like joy at the prospect of being more and more deeply involved in complications. By the time she said goodbye to her parents and the other two ladies, at the hospital gates, the matter was as good as settled in principle. Honey and her mother were to go to London and stay with Deborah at the Gloria, just as soon as a few days' leave became available. 93