by Betty Neels
‘Good afternoon, Sister. I’ve a list for tomorrow, have I not? Perhaps I might see the patients now.’
She led him to the first one and after a moment he said pleasantly:
‘Don’t bother with me, Sister, I’m sure you have plenty to do. I’ll ask a nurse if I want anything.’
Thus dismissed, Tabitha went to her office, where she sat with the requisition books open before her, lost in thought. She wouldn’t be able to tell Marius about the letter; in those few minutes together she had sensed his withdrawal behind a cool pleasantness of manner which she knew she wouldn’t be able to penetrate. She told herself it was a good thing, for now she could put him out of her mind. She concentrated instead on what she would say the following evening at Chidlake. She was rehearsing a series of speeches calculated to melt a heart of stone when Marius walked in. ‘I’ll do that pelvis tonight,’ he said briskly. ‘May I use the telephone?’
She pushed the instrument across the desk towards him and listened while he talked to Sue, with whom he appeared to be on the friendliest of terms, which made it all the more apparent to her as he gave her his instructions that he had no intention of extending those terms to herself. He was still pleasant, but his manner was guarded and so politely impersonal that nothing would have persuaded her to so much as mention Chidlake.
She listened to his directions without looking at him, because she couldn’t bear to see his face while he talked in that casual, distant voice. He got up to go presently and she went at once into the ward, her face set in a stony calm. She had been unhappy before, but never had she felt quite so desolate as she did now. It was because she had asked him for money and help, of course. She had been a fool—if she hadn’t been so desperate. At least she had got her chance of meeting the new owner of Chidlake, but it had cost her Marius’s good opinion of her. She had thought that he would have understood, and he hadn’t.
She rang for the porters, served the suppers, studied the operation list for the next day so that she could plan the ward work and went down to supper; the case wouldn’t be back until eight o’clock. She sat with the other ward sisters, eating her way through egg and chips and college pudding without having the least idea what was on her plate while she talked with her usual pleasantness to her companions at table. Afterwards she was unable to remember a word of the conversation, but as no one had questioned anything she had said, presumably she had talked sense.
She and Betts were putting traction on the newly returned theatre case when Marius came into the ward, finished it for them, added some more instructions to those he had already given her and then said: ‘A word with you, Sister.’
She accompanied him to the office; perhaps everything was going to be all right again. She stood just inside the door, waiting for him to speak. She was mistaken, for he began in that same coolly casual voice:
‘About Morgan—I see you have quite rightly put him on a half-hourly pulse chart. I’d like that changed to a quarter hourly pulse, please. The slightest sign of it going up and you will be good enough to tell Mr Steele at once. Never mind if it is a false alarm—we don’t want a secondary haemorrhage. Please make this clear to your nurses.’
Tabitha’s voice was so professional it sounded severe. ‘Very well, sir. Did you wish to see anyone else?’
She gave him a quick look and found his eyes intent on her, and the wish to fling herself into his arms and tell him how much she loved him was so strong that she clenched her teeth so that her mouth looked quite forbidding. He said slowly, still staring: ‘No, not at present, thank you. Good night.’
She watched him make his unhurried way down the corridor and then went back into the ward. There was plenty to do still, and as far as she was concerned a very good thing too.
The following day was busy too; only in the afternoon, when the list was finished, did the work slacken. Marius hadn’t been to the ward all day and now it was George Steele who came to check on the operation cases. He wrote up the charts for her and said, ‘I expect that will do—you’re quite happy about Morgan? I’ll pop in later on and have a look at him as Mr van Beek has gone.’
‘Gone?’ Tabitha lifted a suddenly white face to his. ‘You don’t mean left?’
George put a chart on the desk and said without looking at her: ‘No, Tabby. He’ll be here for another week or two while Mr Raynard finds his feet. Didn’t he mention it?’
Tabitha shook her head, not trusting her voice. Presently when he had finished writing, she said: ‘Thanks for writing up the drugs. Staff’s on in a minute. I shall be glad to get off.’
He paused in the doorway. ‘You look done in, Tabby. I should have an early night.’
She agreed mendaciously and summoned a smile as she went.
The flat was empty when she got home; she found a note on the kitchen table in Meg’s square careful handwriting, telling that she had gone to spend an evening with a friend and had taken Podger with her. Tabitha’s supper was in the oven and she was to eat it.
Tabitha read this communication in some surprise; it wasn’t like Meg to go out at a moment’s notice like that, and certainly not to take Podger. She shrugged her shoulders, ignored the oven, made some coffee while she ran the bath and went to put out her clothes. She had already decided what to wear—the green linen with the white bands round the neck and short sleeves; it was pretty and simple and she wanted desperately to make a good impression. She did her face with all the skill she could muster, and ignoring the clock, took time over her hair. Looking at herself when she was at last ready, she was as satisfied as she ever was with her person; her face looked white and her eyes were puffy with secret weeping, but if she stood with her back to the light, he wouldn’t notice. All she had to do was to keep calm and level-headed and put a clear case before him.
She was so late that she had to drive as fast as the little car would go. The evening was already fading and growing cool, but she didn’t notice this, for her mind was racing ahead, exploring every possible chance to get the new owner to see how vital it was to allow her to rent Chidlake. That he might not want to do so was something she refused to consider.
It was getting on for eight o’clock when she turned into the familiar gateway and stopped the car outside the front door. It stood open and when no one came in answer to her ring, she walked in, going instinctively to the small room her father had used as a study, and which, after his death, had hardly been used at all. The door was shut and opened under her eager hand into a room which hadn’t changed over the years. The French window was open and its faded brocade curtains trembled a little in the light breeze. Her father’s desk stood before it with the bookshelves on either wall. There was a small log fire burning briskly with her father’s armchair drawn up beside it. And Marius was sitting in the chair.
She stared at him unbelievingly and when he got up and came towards her she exclaimed a little wildly: ‘I’m late—has he gone? I didn’t expect you would be here too.’ She added breathlessly: ‘The door was open.’
She hadn’t moved and Marius halted in front of her. ‘Yes, Tabitha, I left it open.’ His voice was gentle, as was his smile, and something in his eyes made her cry out: ‘It’s you—you’ve bought Chidlake!’
He took another step towards her so that they were standing very close.
‘Yes, I bought it. You see, I want to keep it in the family.’ Tabitha felt black despair wash over her. She managed in a shaky voice: ‘Lilith?’
‘No, you, my darling heart. I’ve no glass slipper for my Cinderella; perhaps you’ll settle for Chidlake instead.’
She stared at him as though he had run mad. ‘Glass slipper?’ she uttered bemusedly. ‘You mean you really own Chidlake?’
Marius smiled very tenderly at her. ‘No, you do, my darling.’
‘Me?’ her voice was a squeak, and then: ‘You said my darling.’
‘Which you are and have been ever since I first set eyes on you, though I must say you take a lot of convincing.’
> She shook her head the better to settle the riotous thoughts which filled it, then forgot them all as he caught her close and kissed her and kissed her again and when she would have spoken, said: ‘No, dearest Tabitha, I’m the one to do the talking, but before I start, will you marry me?’
‘Yes,’ said Tabitha, ‘I will,’ and was whisked off her feet before she could say more. Her father’s chair creaked a little as Marius sat down again, but it had been built stoutly as well as with elegance and its ample proportions were more than sufficient for two. She laid her head against his broad shoulder. ‘There are a great many things I don’t understand,’ she began.
‘My darling, it is all very simple. I had made up my mind to marry you before I met your stepmother and Lilith, and when they told me that they wanted to sell Chidlake, I knew that I must buy it for you. You see, Bill Raynard had already told me about you and how much you loved your home. The Johnsons told much the same story too—my problem was to persuade your stepmother to sell me the house as quickly as possible, and without letting her guess that it was you I loved, for I am convinced that she would have refused to sell Chidlake to me if she had had even an inkling. As it was Lilith played into my hands, she was so sure that she had a middle-aged fool in her net…’
Tabitha lifted her head. ‘Middle-aged?’ she cried indignantly. ‘You’re not! Don’t ever say that again…’
He kissed her. ‘I can see that you are going to be a great comfort to me, my dearest. It was a piece of great good fortune that they decided to follow us to Veere, for it was there I finally persuaded Mrs Crawley to visit my solicitor.’
‘The day we went to Bergen-op-Zoom,’ Tabitha said.
‘Yes—and if you remember I took them to dinner at the hotel—that was when they finally promised…’
‘The evening Mr Bow was suddenly taken poorly and I pretended a headache!’ She sat up once more. ‘I heard you, you know—only I didn’t understand—I thought you were going to propose to Lilith.’
‘And how very mistaken you were, dear love.’ He kissed her again to prove how in error she had been.
‘You could have told me, Marius.’
‘What—and increase the chance of your stepmother and Lilith finding out? I did not dare. But now Chidlake is yours, Tabby.’ He went on: ‘You know that we can’t live here, don’t you, my darling? I have to live in Veere, for that is my home and my work lies mainly in Holland, but we shall be able to come here for holidays and a weekend now and again. Could you be content with that? Meg says she will be glad to live here as housekeeper and Knotty can’t wait to move into the little cottage next to the garage. It will be a wonderful place to send the children.’
Tabitha drew, if that were possible, a little closer to him. ‘I love Veere and I love your home, I can’t believe I’ve got both—I’ll never be able to thank you enough, dearest Marius.’
‘That is an interesting point we’ll take up later.’
‘Couldn’t you have told me when I tried to borrow that money?’
‘Well,’ Marius said reasonably, ‘you rather took the wind out of my sails, my dearest. Before I could put two words together there you were asking me for three hundred thousand pounds.’
He shook with laughter and Tabitha made haste to say: ‘You may well laugh, but I was deadly serious and I hated it.’ She looked up, remembering. ‘Oh, Marius dear. I haven’t made you poor because of me?’
He laughed again. ‘No, Tabby. I am, as Knotty put it, a man of substance—I can well afford it.’
She asked in wonder: ‘How does Meg know?—you said she will live here as housekeeper.’
‘I asked her. When shall we be married?’
Tabitha sat up. ‘I have to give a month’s notice.’
‘Too long. I’ll attend to that in the morning. I’ll see about a special licence too. We’ll be married here in the village and all your friends shall come.’
Tabitha gave a contented sigh and then exclaimed: ‘Goodness, I must go back—I’m on at eight in the morning.’
‘You’re not going back tonight, dearest. Have you forgotten I’m due in tomorrow too? I’ll take you back in the morning. We’re going to have supper now. Meg’s been busy for the last hour.’
‘Meg?’ echoed Tabitha faintly.
‘Of course. I brought her down with me, with Knotty and of course Podger—Hans is here too. Meg had a lovely time getting your own room ready for you.’ He looked at his watch. ‘They’ll be waiting for us, Tabby, our three old friends.’
They paused in the doorway and she looked back from the shelter of his arm at the peaceful little room. They would come here often, she thought happily. ‘Things happen,’ she said obscurely, ‘lovely things, when you don’t think they’re going to.’
Marius appeared to have no difficulty in understanding her. ‘As you happened to me, my darling.’
Tabitha looked all of a sudden quite beautiful; it was surprising what love could do to even the plainest of features. ‘So I did,’ she agreed in some astonishment.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-3981-4
TABITHA IN MOONLIGHT
Copyright © 1976 by Betty Neels
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