The man who came back

by Pamela Kent

  the next time Dr. Drew called at Falaise she

  would refuse to see him.

  "I'll show him!" Her smooth cheeks were still rather more pink than usual, and as she had emerged from her mourning in order to wear an ice-blue lame cocktail suit she really looked extraordinarily and quite compellingly attractive.

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  Harriet, who hadn't bothered to change apart from slipping into a very ordinary little silk day dress, felt sure that if Dr. Drew arrived at the house at that moment and saw her, seated so elegantly at the head of her own flower-decked dining-table, he wouldn't be able to resist her. In fact, if he really wanted a wife, and his inclination was to settle down in his own comfortable home, with no need to follow his profession unless he was really dedicated to the task of healing the sick and making them his main preoccupation, now was his opportunity to make vital changes in his way of life. Without knowing anything at all about his right to live at Falaise and enjoy the income from the estate in his own right�without the encumbrance of a wife, and possibly a family�he could still do so and many men would consider him singularly fortunate ... or so Harriet felt convinced as she looked along the length of the highly polished rosewood table at her sister.

  After all, Bruce had been reasonably happy, so why should not Philip Drew?

  It all depended on the manner of man he was, and how much he already knew about his right to enjoy Falaise.

  Looking backwards over the short period of time that she had known Dr. Drew, Harriet was inclined to wonder more increasingly just how much he did know about the situation as it was.

  � If he knew nothing, why had he taken over

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  the job of Dr. Parkes' locum? A man of his

  superior qualifications! And having looked him

  up in a medical directory Harriet knew all about

  his qualifications by now. She more than sus

  pected that her half-sister did, too.

  "The man's arrogant," Gay declared, as she

  shook her head impatiently at the fish course.

  "And what's more, he's almost impossibly arro

  gant ! He'll have to be tamed!"

  "I thought you decided some time ago that he

  was charming," Harriet recalled, helping herself

  to Dover sole. "And in any case," with deceptive

  demureness and sweetness, "you know all about

  taming difficult and arrogant men, don't you? You've said so heaps of times!" Her half-sister merely glared at her over the centrepiece of roses.

  "I have my methods," she admitted crisply. "But usually I don't need to resort to them. I don't really expect I'll have to do so in Dr. Drew's case!"

  The next day Philip Drew telephoned, and it was Harriet who answered his call. He requested her, in a tone of the utmost amiability, to convey his apologies to Mrs. Earnshaw for his inability to speak to her the day before, and to tell her that he would look in and see her towards the end of the week.

  On having his message transmitted to her Gay looked, at first, completely surprised, as if she was sure there must be some sort of a mistake.

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  And then, when the full implication of it got through to her, her eyes flashed indignantly, and she actually stamped her foot for a moment.

  "Well, of all the�!" She remembered what she had said about handling men, and tightened up her lips, while the indignation in her eyes

  subsided to a mere smoulder of annoyance. "Oh,

  well," she exclaimed, after a moment, "so long as he hasn't entirely forgotten me... ! I'll have a little heart-to-heart talk with him at the end of the week, and in the meantime I'll accept it that he's busy."

  "I believe there are a lot of tummy upsets about at the moment," Harriet attempted to console her. "And in a village like this there's always someone having a baby, or something of

  the sort." Gay merely subjected her to rather a long look.

  She might have taken an even longer look if, later that morning, she had been permitted a glimpse of Harriet standing beside the doctor's car in the very middle of the village, while he engaged her in conversation that appeared to be

  of some import.

  "How are you?" he asked, when somewhat unwillingly she came to a halt as his car slid alongside her and the narrow pavement along which she was walking. She had Solomon, who

  v had grown amazingly in a short space of time, on a lead, and she was training him to keep to heel,

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  but the close proximity of the doctor's car alarmed her, and she snatched Solomon up into her arms.

  "I'm perfectly all right, thank you," she answered, and he alighted and tweaked the puppy's ear.

  "Growing, isn't he?" he observed. "He'll be taking you for a walk soon, not you him!"

  Harriet glanced at him uneasily. Apart from everything else, she had the uneasy feeling that if Gay saw her�and in particular, if she saw the unhurried way in which Philip Drew had alighted from his car, and was at present leaning against it as if he had all the time in the world in which to pursue his own affairs�she would be far from pleased. She might even be suspicious, and put Harriet through a prolonged interrogation when she got back to the house.

  Philip Drew's intensely dark eyes smiled at Harriet as if he understood perfectly what she was thinking and feeling. His shapely mouth smiled whimsically.

  "I seem to remember that it was you who first reproached me for taking your sister's bereavement too seriously," he observed. "Not her actual bereavement, but her reaction to it. You seemed to think she would recover quite normally without my devoted attendance, and although I don't

  ^ admit you were right I do think my devoted attendance can ease off a little now. When I saw Mrs. Earoshaw the other night she seemed to me

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  to be in splendid trim, not in the least in need of a doctor." Harriet continued to regard him rather

  warily. She realised that he had either seen the red light in good time where Gay was concerned ... or else he had decided to adopt different tac

  tics. It was also very possible�indeed, probable �that he knew far more than Gay supposed, and was organising his line of assault. If that was so the attack might come at any moment, and poor Gay would almost certainly be caught off her guard. The knowledge that she had acquired in London had done nothing to frighten her, because she was so confident�or rather, had been, until two or three days'ago�of her ability to handle the doctor, and the effect she had already had on him.

  But Harriet�who thought she knew him much better�could have warned her at the outset that it never does to take a man for granted, certainly not a man with the sort of jawline, hard mouth and cagey eyes that Philip Drew possessed. The fact that he was in his thirties and a bachelor should also have warned her. But apparently it had done nothing of the

  _ kind. "Well?" The doctor was watching her, amused because she appeared to be confused about something. "You were my patient more recently than your sister. How's the head?" As , usual she was hatless, and her soft hair was blow

  THE MAN WHO CAME BACK 147 ing in the breeze. "For one who was very, very slightly concussed you. also appear to have made a rapid recovery." "I wasn't concussed. I'm afraid I made far too much fuss about my head." Her confusion grew, because she could never think about that night when he had visited her in her room without remembering that he had kissed her. ' "Oh, no, you didn't." But there was something reminiscent about his smile, as if he, too, was recollecting that moment of intimacy. "As a , matter of fact, you made very little fuss. You're not the type to make a fuss ... or I don't think you are." He opened the door of his car. "What about coming with me on my rounds? As a matter of fact, I've only got one visit to make this morning, and we could st,op and have a drink somewhere, if you feel like it." "Wouldn't that be unethical? A general practitioner in the course of his daily duties
, stopping to have a drink with a patient?" "You're not an official patient of mine, and as I've said, I've only got one patient to visit. This afternoon I am free, and the reek of alcohol on my breath will not offend anyone. However, perhaps you'd prefer to make it lunch, with a sherry beforehand?" Harriet had a sudden mental image of her sister's face if she learned�and in a small country district like that she was almost certain

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  to learn very quickly�that Harriet had enjoyed a cosy lunch with the doctor at a time when he was practically refusing to take her ailments seriously and call on her at Falaise. But at the same time�and this in spite of the fact that she was anxious to cut the interview short and go on her way�she experienced a quite extraordinary pang because she couldn't accept his invitation, and an afternoon that might have been filled with diversion had to be rejected in favour of the more normal type of afternoon that she usually passed at Falaise.

  "I'm sorry�" she began; and then she saw that his dark eyes were actually pleading with her quite openly. There Was something warm and inviting in his eyes, and she felt as if she was being engulfed by comforting warm dark waters that took her breath away while they created a kind of warm fire in all her veins. "I'm sorry," she repeated, "but it really isn't possible�"

  "Why not?" She shrugged her shoulders a little helplessly, while she stood there clutching Solomon in her

  arms. ' /

  "Gay expects me back to lunch...." "Do you always have to do what Mrs. Earnshaw expects?" "Not always, but... well, she doesn't like lunching alone." "Really?" His tanned face looked suddenly thin and bleak and, to Harriet's considerable

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  surprise, highly critical. "Then that means you don't have much of a life of your own, doesn't it?"

  She shrugged again, in the" same helpless manner. "Oh, I have quite a good life." "But you wanted to go back to London, didn't you? Was it because your sister refuses you a life of your own if you live with her?" Harriet attempted to deny it, and then she realised that his attitude towards Gay had undergone a complete and rather alarming change. Even the thought of her seemed to make his eyes and mouth look grim and caused his voice to grate. "Listen," he said, "I know perfectly well that I was unreasonable to you when we first met, and I don't quite understand it myself... but don't please get the idea that it was because I was ever in the very slightest degree deceived about Mrs. Earnshaw. She is the type of wealthy woman I have met often in my career, and although she's probably the most beautiful widow I've ever met that never affected my analysis of her character. She's as brittle as glass and as shallow as a film of ice, and accustomed to demanding homage from the opposite sex. She'll probably marry another very rich man before very long, and then you'll find yourself unwanted and as free as air again ... whether or not you want to be as free as air!"

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  Harriet stared at him.

  "But I thought you admired her. I thought�"

  "I know." He smiled sardonically. "You'd be

  surprised how'much I know about you, and the way your mind ticks ... and how frequently you've infuriated me despite the brevity of our acquaintance. Now, if you're refusing to have lunch with me because Mrs. Earnshaw might find out, and in any case, she'd object�"

  "She would object. She's tried very hard to see you this week." "I know. I shall call upon her in a couple of days' time."

  "Why a couple of days?"

  For the first time he looked impatient.

  "Really, Harriet, be your age," he begged� and for the first time in her life, although he was annoyed with her, she liked the sound of her name. "Your sister is not a sick woman, and my job is to look after sick people. The last time I saw her she talked so much that you found it impossible to utter so much as a squeak throughout dinner, and I was acutely bored. I don't want to be bored again in that way. At any rate, I don't fancy being bored like that very often. But since she wants to see me I will call upon her, and if there is anything she particularly wants to see me about�"

  "You know there is," she challenged him, and waited for him to reveal by his expression that he did know. But his expression gave away

  THE MAN WHO CAME BACK 151 nothing. "I think you know very well that there is!" He shrugged. "Why waste time talking in riddles? We could have been half way to that new roadhouse on the Borminster road by now... and I believe they do a very good lunch there. However, perhaps we'll try it some evening for dinner. If you won't even have a drink with me will you come to tea this afternoon?" shooting the substitute invitation at her in a short, sharp voice. She was so surprised that she showed it. "You mean�at Dr. Parkes' house?" "Yes, since you feel you must make it clear that it isn't my house." She flushed. "I�I didn't mean that." "I know you didn't. You say a lot of things you don't mean, Harriet." He sounded still more impatient. "And one day I probably will own a house in this district." Her eyes widened. "Will you come to tea, Harriet? Can I tell my housekeeper� or Dr. Parkes' housekeeper, rather�to prepare for you"?" She met his eyes again, fully, and the colour deepened in her cheeks�she actually seemed to be glowing like a rose. She took a sudden resolve, and she knew afterwards that it was because she hadn't the strength of mind to do otherwise. "All right," as if she had been running and

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  was short of breath. "If you�if you really want

  me to."

  "I wouldn't ask you if I didn't want you." The words had the effect of setting fire to something highly inflammatory in her veins. Once again he played with Solomon's ears. "You can bring this chap along, too, if you like ... in fact, I'd prefer it if you did. You've probably cured him of his habit of leaving puddles all ewer the place, but it doesn't matter if you haven't."

  "Did�did your housekeeper object very much when I came to tea before?" she enquired, with the same breathlessly excited note in her voice, and the same disinclination to continue

  meeting his eyes. He smiled. "She knew I'd had someone to tea. When I

  told her who it was she seemed surprised." "Didshe?" "And pleased. She called you 'the nice young

  lady at Falaise.' From which I gathered that she's not all that sold on your sister." Harriet turned away quickly. She thought it was unfortunate he should mention Gay just then.

  "I'll have to go," she said. "I'm on my way to the butcher's. I'm supposed to pick up some chops for lunch."

  Philip Drew looked after her whimsically. "You and I could have lunched on something

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  better than that," he told her. "A little nectar

  and ambrosia!"

  Harriet managed to get through lunch with

  out arousing Gay's suspicion; and although she

  felt horribly guilty because she proposed to do

  something that would have upset her half-sister

  very much if she had known about it, she had no

  intention of backing out now that she had given

  her word to Dr. Drew that she would have tea

  with him.

  After all, she argued, there was nothing very

  outrageous about having tea with him. Neither

  the invitation nor the acceptance implied very

  much. (Although when she searched her con

  science about this she was not quite so certain.)

  She had had tea with him before, and Gay still

  did not know about that... She supposed she

  ought to have let Gay know. But why did she have to let Gay know about everything that was happening in her life ? When, after all, she didn't even want to live with Gay!

  And then when she searched her conscience again she knew that there was a very good reason why she should have let Gay know. The very roof over her half-sister's head was in danger of being removed from it if the doctor found out that it really belonged to him, and if she didn't want to do any harm to Gay she would proceed very cautiously while she was
having tea with him.

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  As a result of judicious questioning she might find out whether he knew that he was the rightful owner of Falaise, and whether he was only in the district to establish his rights. If she did that it might be of some assistance to Gay. But on the other hand, once she started asking judicious questions she might make revelations that would be harmful to Gay.

  She realised that she was torn between loyalty

  to her sister and a strange, new loyalty to Dr.

  Drew... and it was all very confusing and upsetting because if she was ignorant of the true state of affairs she could feel much happier in her mind. As it was, when she drove herself and Solomon to the doctor's house she felt like a conspirator who had somehow failed to carry out the task entrusted to her.

  But when she arrived at the doctor's house she ceased to feel anything of the kind.

  Philip Drew was in the garden when she drove up, looking very casual and off-duty in a sweater and slacks. The sweater was a very expensive one and suited him, and he wore a winecoloured silk neckerchief tucked into the front of the sweater, which made his skin look attractively dark, while his eyes were extraordinarily deep and dark and had a tiny, amused gleam in them, and a glow at the back of them.

  "Good girl," he said softly, as he took Solomon from her and led her into the house. The sittingroom was full of flowers, and she realised that he