‘I hope you are right.’ Mrs. Andy opened the door of the library and turned, speaking over her shoulder as she left. ‘I hear Mr. Greensmith is about to leave,’ she excused herself. ‘I’ll just have a word with him and then I’ll talk to Garth. This matter must be brought to a conclusion, and quickly.’
‘If you don’t succeed,’ Roger rejoined, ‘I’ll talk to Tansy, even though I don’t want to—until their engagement’s broken off again, but I’m going back soon...’
‘And you’d like her with you,’ Mrs. Andy finished for him. ‘I think you’ll manage it. Just find Julie first, please, and see if you can calm her down. She was very upset when she went to the telephone and she mustn’t give way just yet, not when everything is on its way to being sorted out.’
CHAPTER XIII
Everything may have been on its way to being sorted out, as Mrs. Andy had cheerfully prophesied, but there was no sign of Julie as the old lady went to say her goodbye to Ian Greensmith. The surgeon was well pleased with the success of his work and had waited to see her, knowing she would be as delighted as he was himself by the results of his work.
‘His hand is perfect,’ he assured her now, knowing how deeply moved she was by the ready tears which sprang to her eyes. ‘There will be a certain stiffness at first,’ he cautioned, ‘just as with the left hand, but it will amount to nothing, and the baths and massage will soon put an end to that. There’s no reason at all why, within a few weeks, he shouldn’t be back at his desk, pencil flying like mad, everything under control. He’s a lucky young man.’
‘He certainly is,’ Mrs. Andy agreed, ‘and not the least part of his luck is in that you were at hand when all this happened. I hope he appreciates it!’
‘He does,’ Ian assured her gravely. ‘He’s in the drawing-room, waiting for you and for Julie. I don’t know which of you he wants to show off to first!’
‘Where is Julie?’ Mrs. Andy demanded. ‘Not still talking on the telephone, surely?’
‘I couldn’t say’—Ian glanced at his watch—‘and I really must be going. I have a full programme which lasts through the rest of the day and won’t be over until late tonight.’ He gave her the cheerful, lopsided smile which Julie had always liked about him. ‘If I’m needed I’ll be at St. Luke’s,’ he said. ‘I’ll be lucky if I get away before midnight.’
‘I’ll remember,’ Mrs. Andy smiled, ‘and I’m not being rude if I say I hope we don’t need you any more! Remember what I said about your own future. You’re still a young man ... at least by my standards!’
She was still smiling to herself as Ian drove himself down the curving drive and out of sight, but the smile faded as she went in search of Garth and Julie. There was no sign of the girl as she made her way to the drawing-room, but Garth was there, a sketch-block on his knee, pencil poised in his right hand. He jumped to his feet as she entered, waving the pad for her inspection.
‘Look,’ he said triumphantly, ‘I can use my hand ... it’s all right. It’s stiff, and I can’t use the pencil so freely as I’ve been used to doing, but Ian says that will return with practice. I can be back at the office before September is out and the whole thing well under way before the winter starts in earnest.’ He gave her a sudden, anxious glance. ‘Where’s Julie?’ he demanded. ‘Ian wanted to see her again, but he couldn’t wait any longer.’
‘She must be in her room if she’s finished on the telephone,’ Mrs. Andy commented. ‘I think she rather wanted to be alone for a little while. Garth, that girl loves you,’ she ended directly. ‘I don’t know whether you realize it or not...’
‘I know she does.’ Garth’s face softened. ‘There’s just this business of Tansy and this engagement that isn’t,’ he finished miserably. ‘I must get Julie to drive me to town and try to see Tansy. I couldn’t get her on the phone and she hasn’t rung me, although the agent or whoever he was promised to give her my message.’
‘But if you know she loves you,’ Mrs. Andy burst out irritably, ‘why don’t you do something about it? Julie has been under a great strain, acting as your nurse and wanting to be so much more, watching Tansy fuss around you every weekend, knowing all the time there was no truth in this story of an engagement, that it was all over and finished with before the accident happened and pretending all the time that everything was all right, simply to save you worry and distress. It’s time you saved her worry and distress, Garth. You must go to Tansy and tell her that you know all about this ... deception. Tell her that you don’t blame her, that you understand, but ask her to set you free.’
‘I’m going to do exactly that,’ Garth said, ‘but I can’t do it over the telephone! That would be brutal. I must see her, explain...’
‘It occurs to me that any explanations should come from Tansy and not from you,’ Mrs. Andy observed tartly, ‘but please yourself, only don’t be surprised if you find Julie can’t take any more, as you young people phrase it, and that she has vanished and left you to sort things out for yourself. As to your action being brutal, I rather think Tansy will hail the knowledge that you know the truth with some sort of relief.’
‘Relief? Why?’ Garth asked quickly. ‘Why should you make a remark like that?’
‘Because Tansy and Roger love each other, just as you and Julie do,’ Mrs. Andy remarked as casually as if she were announcing a change in the weather. ‘Haven’t you seen them together all last weekend? Haven’t you noticed the way her eyes follow him wherever he is in the room, how she hangs on his every word?’
‘Because she’s hoping for a part in this next film of the new book he’s working on,’ Garth said quickly. ‘I know about that. That’s one of the reasons why I don’t want to upset her. She’s a very temperamental little thing, you know. She isn’t matter-of-fact as I am. I don’t want to say anything...’
‘Just make it clear you’d rather be free,’ Mrs. Andy said crisply. ‘I’m certain she would too. And Roger won’t say anything to her until she has your ring off her finger and he can put his own in its place. You make me cross,’ she ended suddenly, ‘all of you. You’re too introspective, looking for motives and ideas which aren’t there, imagining all sorts of feelings and events which could never be. Just get down to a little plain talking between you and I’m sure you’ll all find the happiness you are hoping for.’
‘I ... how do you know?’ Garth was suspicious. ‘Are you saying all this to convince me? How do you know Roger loves her ... isn’t going to make her feel important and then let her down once she’s signed whatever they do sign to be in these pictures and things? Are you sure you aren’t doing this just because you know that’s what I want ... and, as you always have done, you’re trying your best to help me? I assure you, Aunt Lavinia, I’m really recovered now, I can deal with this, I can tell Tansy...’
‘I’m the one to tell Tansy,’ Roger’s voice boomed from the door as he strode into the room. ‘If you don’t want everyone to know your business, Garth, you should lower your voice,’ he advised. ‘I was looking for Julie, and I heard most of what you were saying, but I can’t ask a girl to marry me while she’s wearing another man’s engagement ring.’
‘Marry you?’ Garth repeated as though he could not believe it, then he moved forward, seizing Roger’s hand and shaking it as though he could not bear to let it go. ‘Congratulations!’ he said, smiling. ‘What Julie said the other day was right—it must be—that things are planned out for us and we go the way we were intended to go, whether we know it or not. But for that accident and but for the fact of Tansy restarting our broken engagement, you two might never have met, and it’s obvious you were made for each other.’
‘We would have met,’ Roger said easily. ‘I’m sure of that. I inherited some of Mother’s philosophy, too,’ he grinned. ‘Julie isn’t alone in remembering. By the way’—he turned directly to Garth—‘have you seen her? Julie, I mean.’
‘She came into the study just as I had finished telephoning,’ Garth said. ‘That was just before you found me in
the hall, waiting until you had finished talking to Ian. Julie hadn’t left the study then.’
‘I don’t think she’s there now,’ Roger put in. ‘Shall I go and find out?’
‘Please.’ Mrs. Andy was growing worried and trying not to show it. ‘She was rather upset as she left Ian and myself.’
‘If Julie’s ... hurt ... upset ... then it’s my fault,’ Garth said miserably. ‘But she knows I love her ... she knows I’m going to see Tansy and have all this straightened out...’
‘Maybe it’s because you were so ill after the accident, maybe it’s because you are essentially a very nice person and hate to hurt people, or a combination of both,’ Mrs. Andy informed him, ‘but the fact remains that almost a week has gone by since you recovered from your lapse of memory, and so far as Julie is concerned the situation has not changed at all, although Tansy has been here for the weekend.’
‘It was different this weekend,’ Garth said with perfect truth. ‘As a rule she follows me around the place, into the garden, anywhere and everywhere. This weekend she wasn’t actually avoiding me, but she stayed mostly with Roger. I knew he was talking about a film part for her and that was what she wanted, but he is Julie’s brother, and I didn’t want any scenes and whatnot while he was here. It never occurred to me that he had ... fallen in love with Tansy. I just wanted to wait until we were alone again, all of us who had been concerned most with all this...’
‘And since he wants to marry Tansy, he is as much if not more concerned than any of us,’ Mrs. Andy remarked crisply. ‘Roger is your opposite in many ways, but like you in that he will not propose to Tansy while she is wearing your ring. You’ll have to get in touch with her, Garth— Is she there, Roger?’ She broke off as Roger returned, shaking his head.
‘No sign of her anywhere,’ he said slowly. ‘I don’t know what to think.’
‘I’ll go up to her room,’ Mrs. Andy said. ‘She may have just wanted to be alone for a little while. Ring for Edna to bring some tea, will you, Roger, please? It’s amazing what good a cup of tea will do in moments of crisis.’
She hurried away and up the wide staircase and along to the room which had been Julie’s ever since she first came to Woodlands. She tapped cautiously on the door, but there was no sound from within and after a moment or two she repeated her knock which was still ignored. Mrs. Andy drew a deep breath, turned the knob and opened the door. She was not surprised to find the room neat and tidy and an envelope on the dressing-table, with Mrs. Andrew Crossman written on it in Julie’s clear handwriting.
Mrs. Andy did not pause to read the note then. She pushed it into her pocket and went back downstairs.
‘She isn’t there,’ she told the two men briefly. ‘Pass my spectacles, Roger. Let me see what she has to say.’ As she ripped the flap of the envelope Edna deposited the tray of tea on a low table, turning to her mistress. ‘Excuse me, Mrs. Crossman,’ she began, ‘but if it’s Miss Julie you’re wanting she came down to the kitchen just as I went in to make your tea. There was a taxi at the back door ... not one of the station taxis, one from the top village.’
‘Thank you, Edna,’ Mrs. Andy said quickly. ‘Roger—Garth—’ and she hurried off in the direction of the kitchen.
They were just too late. As Mrs. Andy pushed open the swing door which led to her immaculate, modernized kitchen the black taxi pulled smartly away from the back door and started off down the drive.
‘Is something wrong, ma’am?’ Cook looked astonished at this invasion of her domain. Mrs. Andy pulled herself together with an obvious effort.
‘No,’ she said slowly, ‘I don’t think so, Mrs. Best. I just wanted to see Nurse before she left. Have you any idea what instructions she gave the driver?’
‘I couldn’t say, I’m sure,’ Cook replied, somewhat mollified. ‘I was busy at the oven; and it was none of my business, though I did think it funny, her leaving by my kitchen door instead of the normal way.’
‘It’s quite all right,’ Mrs. Andy said quickly. ‘Miss Saxon had her own reasons. Thank you. Cook. We won’t stay here, getting in your way.’
Back in the drawing-room she took the letter from her pocket and adjusted her spectacles carefully, peering closely at the letter while Roger and Garth waited impatiently.
‘Dear Mrs. Crossman [she read aloud],
I do apologize for running off in this dreadful fashion, but I must go away by myself somewhere to think things out and to give Garth a chance, without either Tansy or myself being present, to make up his mind what he intends to do. Matron has granted me forty-eight hours off duty and a relief nurse will be here shortly, but I don’t think either she or I are necessary now. Don’t try to find me. I’m going away from you all until my leave is up, but I will be back on duty when it’s ended. Please tell Roger not to worry. I’m sure he is trying to help in his own way.
Sincerely yours,
Julie Saxon.’
‘Well!’ Roger drew a deep breath. ‘The little idiot,’ he grumbled aloud. ‘Why couldn’t she have told me what she intended to do? I could have explained then, about Tansy and myself.’
‘We could have all explained so much,’ Garth said slowly, ‘but it’s too late now. Unless,’ he added hopefully as a taxi halted outside, ‘this is Julie coming back,’ and he sped hopefully to the door.
The sight of the familiar navy blue cloak of the nurses of St Luke’s descending from the taxi sent Garth racing down the steps to meet the newcomer, but his words of greeting died on his lips as the taxi door opened and he came face to. face with Isobel Stephenson’s pleasant homely countenance.
‘I—I thought you were Julie ... Nurse Saxon,’ he began. ‘I don’t usually rush at people like that. I’m sorry.’
‘That’s all right.’ Isobel smiled at him cheerfully, looking attentively at him and remembering what he looked like when he left the hospital. ‘I must say you look very much improved, Mr. Holroyd. Congratulations.’
‘Thanks.’ Garth uttered the one word absent-mindedly, but Isobel thought she understood.
‘Nurse Saxon has been given forty-eight hours off duty,’ she said, following him into the house. ‘She’ll be back—’ her tone was so soothing as to be irritating—‘and I think we can cope until she returns.’
Garth looked at her steadily. In his temple a little pulse was pounding and his mind was turning over and over again what Julie must have been thinking to make her run away like this. The last thing in the world he wanted was to be treated like a baby, an invalid or, he thought savagely, an imbecile!
‘I’m quite well, Nurse,’ he said curtly. ‘I don’t want to see Julie for medical reasons. In fact I don’t really think it’s necessary for you to stay. All I need now is enough hand exercise to restore the flexibility to the muscles, and that I can do for myself.’
‘I’m not answerable to you, Mr. Holroyd, I’m afraid,’ Isobel returned quietly. ‘Matron sent me, and Matron will send for me when it’s time for me to return to the hospital. Until then,’ she gave an anxious glance in Mrs. Andy’s direction, ‘I shall endeavour to do my duty.’
‘I’m sure you will, Nurse. Nurse—Stevens, isn’t it?’ Mrs. Andy ventured, nodding as Isobel corrected her stiffly. ‘Mr. Holroyd is a little upset ... we are all somewhat upset just now, nothing at all to do with you, Nurse, please don’t think that.’
‘Whatever the cause,’ Isobel remarked, looking closely at Garth, ‘Mr. Holroyd is doing himself no good at all in getting worked up like this. After a blow to the skull such as he had he must try to keep calm and in control of himself for some time to come.’
‘I can’t just stand here having someone tell me what I ought to do and ought not to do,’ Garth burst out impatiently. ‘Julie might be anywhere by this time.’
‘Not really, Garth.’ Roger spoke steadily, reassuringly and his words had the necessary effect on Garth.
‘I have an idea,’ Roger went on. ‘You’ve tried to contact Tansy by phone and not succeeded. Let’s take the Jag, I won
’t take any unnecessary risks, but I can guarantee to get to Hyncaster before Bailey would do it in the big limousine. We’ll comb the town until we find her, or find out where she has gone. Then you can say your piece and I can say mine, and that will clear up that end of the tangle before we find Julie. We can tell her then that everything is settled and all right.’
‘Good idea.’ Garth turned to his aunt. ‘You don’t mind, do you, Aunt Lavinia?’ he asked with a return to his old, courteous self. ‘I don’t think you should come with us. You stay here and try and find her by telephone, and look after Nurse whatever her name is, please,’ he added with an apologetic look in Isobel’s direction.
‘I’ll do that,’ Mrs. Andy said thoughtfully, ‘but you must keep me informed of what has happened. When you have contacted Tansy, telephone here and let me know what she says, what is going to happen next. I can’t rest any more than you and Roger with Julie dashing about somewhere, miserable as she is.’
‘She may have gone back to her room at the nurses’ hostel,’ Isobel ventured. ‘A lot of the girls spend their leaves just resting, lounging about and catching up on their mending and things.’
She did not know what was wrong, but she was anxious to help. She was fond of Julie, and she had admired Garth when he had been taken to St. Luke’s and her sentimental heart scented a romance in the air, although as yet she hadn’t a very clear idea of what was happening, what all the flap was about. Wasn’t this Tansy person they had just mentioned the exotic-looking fiancée of Mr. Holroyd’s who had made herself a nuisance wanting him to speak to her? And surely this bronzed-looking giant of a man with the dark golden hair and the sea-blue eyes must be Roger Saxon, the brother of her friend whom she had never met and yet heard so much about from Julie and the other nurses at St. Luke’s?
Nurse Saxon's Patient Page 18
