by Betty Neels
‘No, but you are tied to this small creature, aren’t you? Is Henrika coming next week?’
‘Oh, yes, on Saturday.’
He didn’t reply, only handed back the baby before walking to the door, and his goodbye was very casual, almost as though he had forgotten that she was there. After he’d gone Hannah remembered that he had already read the charts and report before telling Nerissa to join the others. She found it remarkable that he had made an excuse to stay behind; surely someone as beautiful as Nerissa merited constant attendance, especially from a man who intended to marry her?
Hannah fed Paul and tucked him up once more, then went to sit by the open window and write to her mother. The letters she had been receiving from her parent were surprisingly cheerful. Mrs Slocombe must be a paragon!
Her tea was brought to her presently and later, when Mevrouw van Eysink came to see little Paul and feed him, observing that Uncle Valentijn and his fiancée would be staying for dinner, Hannah made haste to ask if she might have a tray in the nursery. She had, she explained, a quite bad headache, due to the heat. She didn’t like fibbing, but the prospect of sitting with the other four, very much odd man out, was more than she could stomach. Uncle Valentijn was bad enough, but to have Nerissa there too, with that faint superior smile, pretending that she wasn’t there, was enough to ruin her evening. Mevrouw van Eysink, instantly all sympathy, said of course she could have a tray, she herself would superintend its contents. ‘And why not go to bed early?’ she advised. ‘You can eat your dinner in your dressing gown, and then rest in bed with a book until Paul’s evening feed.’
Hannah hadn’t intended doing anything of the sort, but she could see that Mevrouw van Eysink wasn’t going to take no for an answer. She promised she would do that and presently Mevrouw van Eysink went away to change for the evening. She still had her stick, but she was walking quite well now; her recovery had been remarkable. Of course it had helped to have an adoring husband and a delightful little son, not to mention the relations who were forever telephoning and sending flowers and the hosts of friends who called each day. They were a very popular young couple—and nice too, mused Hannah, making sure that her charge was asleep before she went to run the bath.
Mevrouw van Eysink had been as good as her word. Dinner, when it arrived, was delicious, and Hannah, in her dressing gown, her hair newly washed, and hanging down her back, ate it slowly. Paul was sleeping; his feed wasn’t due for another hour and she wished just for a moment that she could have gone outside and strolled round the gardens in the cool of the evening. Instead she switched on the small TV, turned the sound very low and concentrated on it. There was an elderly, very learned-looking man holding forth and she had no idea what he was saying, but he made company for her. She wouldn’t admit to being lonely but she was.
She called, ‘Kom binnen,’ when there was a tap on the door. It would be one of the maids to take the tray, and she looked up with a smile, but it was Uncle Valentijn, the picture of masculine elegance, who came in.
‘Corinna tells me that you have a headache.’ He glanced at the TV. ‘You shouldn’t be watching that.’
Hannah, feeling at a disadvantage in her dressing gown and her hair anyhow, frowned slightly. ‘I find it most interesting.’
Uncle Valentijn chuckled. ‘Indeed? Now that surprises me, Hannah—he is discussing Dutch politics in his own language too.’
Hannah smiled then. ‘Well, he’s company,’ she admitted, and wished she hadn’t said it.
‘You’re lonely.’
She said too quickly: ‘No, no, of course not.’
He crossed his legs, leaning up against the wall as though he had taken root. ‘At your age you should be out dancing with some young man.’ He sounded amused, and she flushed painfully, waiting for him to add, ‘But what young man in his right senses would want to go dancing with a plain girl like you?’
He didn’t, of course, but she had no doubt that he was thinking it.
‘I don’t know any young men here,’ she reminded him; there was no need to tell him that she knew precious few in London either.
‘Then we must do something about that, Hannah.’ He spoke kindly, and fearful of being pitied, she said brightly:
‘Oh, I’m quite happy as I am, thank you. If you came to see Paul, I’m afraid he’s very fast asleep.’
Uncle Valentijn left the wall and strolled back to the door. ‘I came to see you, Hannah,’ he said as he went.
She puzzled about that, her letter home quite forgotten, but she could find no answer, only the unacceptable one that he didn’t trust her and felt that he should keep an eye on her care of Paul.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. Uncle Valentijn, back in the drawing-room, gave his opinion, albeit casually, that Hannah might like to meet one or two people of her own age. ‘She will have to stay another week after the date arranged—that makes two weeks still to go, and she has had very little opportunity to get out and about.’ He caught his niece’s eye and added hastily: ‘Oh, I’m not blaming you, liefje, it couldn’t have been otherwise with little Paul so ill and you not quite yourself yet. She has done a splendid job of work and deserves a treat of some sort, don’t you agree? Nerissa, surely you know some young people who would take her along with them for an evening’s dancing or something of that sort?’
Nerissa smiled charmingly, but her blue eyes held a very wary look. She disliked Hannah, which was absurd, since she was a complete nonentity as far as she was concerned, but she never lost an opportunity to impress Valentijn. She said with a pretty little movement of her hands, ‘Why, of course I’ll help. I know simply heaps of people, I’ll find someone for her. Don’t you think that just one young man would be best to start off with? If I brought him along one afternoon, what would be more natural than that he should ask her out for a meal? Could that be managed?’
‘Yes, of course,’ declared Mevrouw van Eysink. ‘If Hannah does the six o’clock feed she could have all the evening, because I could do the nine o’clock one—as long as I know where she is…’
‘We’ll make sure of that.’ Uncle Valentijn gave his fiancée a grateful look. ‘That’s very kind of you, Nerissa—she’s free on Saturday, isn’t she?’
‘Then I’ll drop in tomorrow—don’t worry, Valentijn, I’ll arrange everything.’
She was as good as her word. Hannah, wheeling Paul’s pram round the garden the following afternoon was surprised to see Juffrouw van der Post emerge from the house and come towards her. There was someone with her, and Hannah didn’t have time to wonder at the disappointment she felt because it wasn’t Uncle Valentijn, before she was greeted with unusual warmth by Nerissa, who hailed her as an old friend. ‘Hannah, I’ve brought someone to meet you—I was telling him about you and he wanted to see you.’
Hannah halted and blinked at the young man who had accompanied Nerissa. He was a little on the short side and plump, with brown hair already thinning at the temples, his dark eyes were almost obscured by heavily rimmed glasses, and he had a straggling moustache.
‘Henk van der Kampen,’ said Nerissa in a cooing voice. ‘Henk, this is Hannah, and I’m sure you’ll have a great deal to talk about.’ She smiled a self-satisfied smile. ‘I’m going to chat to Corinna for half an hour.’
Left alone with the visitor, Hannah looked him over carefully. He was dreadful; she loathed moustaches and eyes that never quite met anyone else’s look. She said politely: ‘Do you live near here?’
He had an Adam’s apple which jumped up and down his throat, too. ‘In Soest, close to Nerissa’s home. So you like being a nurse?’ He made it sound a very inferior occupation.
‘Very much. What do you do? Are you a doctor?’
‘Certainly not! I don’t do anything.’
‘How very dull,’ observed Hannah briskly. ‘Now if you’ll excuse me, I like to take little Paul for an airing at this time.’
‘I’ll come with you.’ He glanced round him. ‘This is quite a pleasan
t little garden.’
It was all of four acres. She murmured: ‘Charming!’ and waited for him to talk if he wanted to and wondered meanwhile just what Nerissa was up to. She very much doubted if the tiresome man walking beside her now had ever expressed a wish to meet her…perhaps he’d been bribed…
She realised that he had been speaking and she hadn’t heard a word.
She turned an enquiring face to his and saw that he was put out. ‘I was asking you if you would care to come out to dinner with me on Saturday.’
She was too surprised to answer at once. Not for one moment did she imagine that he had taken a fancy to her, but he must be doing it for some reason. ‘That’s very kind of you,’ she said politely, ‘but little Paul needs a lot of care still. I know I’m free on Saturday, but I won’t go any distance in case I’m needed.’
He grumbled at that and when she said it was time she went indoors with baby Paul, he followed her sulkily and although she made conversation of a sort as they went, he barely answered her. It was a relief to reach the house and go inside, but the relief was short-lived. Mevrouw van Eysink and Nerissa were sitting in the hall and Nerissa said at once: ‘Well, is it all settled? I’m sure you’ll enjoy an evening together and Corinna says she will love to have Paul for an hour or two—I don’t suppose she sees very much of him,’ she added slyly. She looked at Hannah. ‘You look as though an evening out would do you good, Hannah.’
‘Probably it would, but I think I’d rather not go, thank you all the same.’
‘Nonsense—you can be too conscientious. Little Paul won’t know his own mother soon, you guard him like a dragon.’
Mevrouw van Eysink’s pretty face pinkened with anger. ‘That’s not true! You can be very horrid, Nerissa! I don’t know what we should have done without Hannah—we shall always be in her debt.’
Nerissa laughed and got to her feet. ‘Oh, one forgets hospital and nurses once one has got away from them—besides, Valentijn asked me to try and prise you loose from Paul. Henk, you can fetch Hannah on Saturday—shall we say half past seven?’ She kissed Corinna. ‘We must be off—I’ll pop in again in a few days.’
Mevrouw van Eysink and Hannah looked at each other as Nerissa’s car disappeared from the drive.
‘Hannah, I am sorry, but I must say to you that I dislike that woman very much, and to have her for an aunt is beyond anything. She was unkind, and I am sorry.’
‘That’s all right, Mevrouw van Eysink.’ Hannah went on thoughtfully: ‘But you know, she’s right. Perhaps now that little Paul is better, I should go home, and if Uncle Valentijn asked her to prise me loose, he must think that too.’
Mevrouw van Eysink stamped her foot, then winced a little and Hannah sat her down in a chair. ‘Don’t worry, you’ve not done any harm—your bones are quite solid again, but they’ll hurt a little if you do that too much!’
‘Oh, Hannah, you’re such a comfort! And you are not to go home—and why should UncleValentijn think that? Only the other evening—when they came to dinner, you know—he suggested that you might be lonely and that you should go out with people of your own age.’
Hannah stared. ‘Did he really? Well then, I’d better go, hadn’t I?’ She added wistfully: ‘Only I wish he hadn’t got a moustache.’
They burst out laughing then and fell to the interesting task of deciding what Hannah should wear. The silk jersey, of course, she had had no chance to wear it and if she was wearing a pretty dress and the dinner was good it might make Henk more acceptable.
Saturday came quickly and with it Henrika, cheerful as ever, full of her holiday, exclaiming over little Paul’s splendid recovery and very interested to hear that Hannah was going out that evening.
‘But I’m going riding all day,’ said Hannah, and presently got into her slacks and shirt and went along to the stables where the mare was waiting. It was a lovely day again, the heat was already shimmering above the fields, but she had chosen to ride in the woods, along the sandy bridle paths, and when she came to a clearing with a café to one side of it, she stopped and had sandwiches and lemonade and then rode on. She had looked up the route early that morning and she had a map with her—besides, there were plenty of people around. She found her way easily enough and got back to the villa in the late afternoon.
She was dressed and ready and had shown herself to an admiring Henrika and Mevrouw van Eysink, when Henk arrived, driving a Porsche sports car. Hannah tied a scarf over her carefully done hair, put the wrap Mevrouw van Eysink had lent her around her shoulders and went downstairs. It was a pity, but even in a pretty dress and with the prospect of a good dinner, Henk was going to be hard to swallow, but since everyone seemed to think that it would do her good, she smiled and greeted him in a friendly fashion and got into the car with a show of pleasure.
‘We’re going to Utrecht,’ he told her. ‘There’s a restaurant there which you might like.’ He sounded faintly patronising and Hannah made haste to assure him that she was sure of it, then set herself to be an agreeable companion for the remainder of the short drive. A very different one from her previous journey into Utrecht; Valentijn had driven in a masterly fashion and with a complete absence of fuss, whereas Henk swore impatiently at the traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and any car which overtook him. And when they reached the restaurant he assumed a bullying air, demanding another table, and not getting it, sending back the wine and complaining loudly about the service. Hannah wished herself anywhere but where she was. Henk’s loud voice was attracting the attention of everyone around them and as far as she could see his complaints were quite unfounded; the restaurant was a splendid one, the waiters performing their duties with pleasant speed and the food, when it came, was delicious. She did her best, carrying on a conversation constantly nipped in the bud by Henk’s sulky answers, and it was a relief when he called for the bill and hurried her out of the restaurant. As they got into the car he said grumpily: ‘Well, that was a wasted evening—I’ve always had excellent service there when I’ve dined with other girls. You don’t want to go dancing, do you?’
He had started the car without waiting for her to answer him, and dancing was the last thing she wanted to do. Obviously he was trying to blame her for what he considered had been poor service at the restaurant, although how he came to that conclusion was beyond her—unless it was because she had no looks to speak of and her dress was something off the peg—very pretty in its way, but she had soon discovered that the women around them had been wearing lovely dresses which had never seen a peg.
They hardly spoke on the return journey and Hannah sighed with soundless relief as she saw the villa lights as they went up the drive. He pulled up with a jolt before the front entrance and she opened the door and got out.
‘Thank you for a very pleasant evening,’ she said mendaciously, and was taken by surprise when he lunged forward and caught her by the arm.
‘Well, don’t I get a kiss for it?’ he demanded.
She considered his bad-tempered face. ‘No, I think not. In fact, nothing would induce me to kiss you.’
She pulled her arm free and started to walk up the steps to the door and his voice followed her. ‘My God, Nerissa said you were a starchy miss, and how right she was! I’m damned if I’ll do her any more favours!’
Hannah opened the door and went in, not looking back. It was quiet in the house and dimly lit. Henrika would have gone hours ago and Mevrouw van Eysink would have fed Paul and gone to bed herself. Hannah crossed the hall, and as she did so the drawing-room door opened and Uncle Valentijn came out.
‘Did you enjoy your evening?’ he asked.
‘No,’ said Hannah baldly, and made for the stairs, but he put out a hand and caught hers in it and turned her round to face him. He looked at her for a long minute and she stared back, her eyes very wide to stop the tears; she had just realised what Henk had meant about doing Nerissa a favour—he hadn’t wanted to take her out at all; he’d done it to please Nerissa—and why had she suggested it i
n the first place?
‘Come in here and have some coffee,’ invited Uncle Valentijn placidly. ‘Little Paul’s asleep—I’ve just checked.’
Hannah went with him without a word and found herself sitting in one of the high-backed chairs, a cup of coffee at her elbow and him sitting opposite her.
‘I was afraid…’ he began, and then: ‘Nerissa told me this evening that you were going out with Henk van der Kempen—he’s a lout, foul-mouthed, ill-mannered…I can’t imagine why she should have thought that you two would get on well together. Why did you go with him, Hannah?’
It was no good keeping her eyes wide open any longer; a tear slid down her cheek. ‘Well,’ she explained, ‘Nerissa said you wanted to—to prise me loose from little Paul, that I guarded him like a dragon and his mother didn’t see enough of him…’ She paused to swallow her tears and the horror of what she had said made her gasp. ‘Oh, I’m sorry—I shouldn’t have said that! Please forget it—I’m a bit upset; none of it is true.’
‘You’re right, Hannah, none of it is true. I have never asked anyone to prise you away from my nephew, it is the very last thing I would wish to do, and Corinna sees more than enough of him—she isn’t quite fit yet, despite her smiles and laughter—and it is owing to your care that they are both of them as fit as they are.’
Hannah wiped away a tear with a finger and sniffed. ‘I expect I misunderstood Juffrouw van der Post. I didn’t want to go with Henk, you know, but they said you wanted me to.’ She didn’t see his lifted brows and frown. ‘He shouted at the waiter and made a fuss and when we got back here he was angry because I didn’t want him to kiss me.’ She looked across at her companion. ‘He’s got a moustache, and I hate them!’
Uncle Valentijn didn’t smile, although his eyes twinkled. ‘I don’t care for them myself, Hannah.’
‘Oh—well, he said I was a starchy miss, and Ner…’ she stopped.
‘Go on.’ His voice was very soft.
