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told him the total and dealt with his credit card. 'I'll
see that it gets phoned through today,' she told him.
`Does it matter if it's delivered morning or after-
noon?'
`Morning.' He turned to go and at the door
paused. 'How is Peter?'
`Very well. His plaster is covered with his friends'
names and rude messages. We had a note from the
BETTY NEELS 65
hospital to say that he must go there to have a new
plaster tomorrow.'
`That is convenient for you?'
She looked her surprise. 'Well, no, but nothing's
convenient, if you see what I mean, not when I'm
here all day, but Trottie will take him and bring him
back.'
'I'll fetch him and take him home again. He'll be
going to Outpatients?'
`Yes, but we can't impose on your kindness again.
Trottie
He cut her short. 'I have said that I will take him
and bring him home I shall be taking Outpatients'
orthopaedic clinic.' He opened the door, wished her
a curt goodbye over his shoulder and went into the
street.
When she got home that evening she told Trottie
and Peter what Mr van Linssen had arranged.
`There,' said Trottie. 'Didn't I know what a good
man he is so thoughtful of others, knowing as how
you weren't free to take Peter yourself?'
`Oh, magnificent,' said Peter, who was forever try-
ing out long words. 'Perhaps he'll have time for a
game of draughts when he brings me home.'
`Not very likely,' said Eulalia sharply. 'He has to
work like anyone else.' Which remark earned her
surprised looks from her companions.
Mr van Linssen, driving back to the hospital, told
himself that it was interest in Peter which had driven
66 FATE TAKES A HAND
him to offer to take him back to Outpatients in the
morning. Certainly it was not his intention to please
Eulalia: a tiresome girl and far too outspoken. She
needed a firm hand and she wasn't likely to get it,
for it would be hard to find a man prepared to put
up with her ways. Of course, he conceded, she was
devoted to the boy and very protective of Miss Trott,
hard-working too, and not easily discouraged. She
deserved some sympathy, although she would prob-
ably throw it back in the face of anyone offering it.
He parked the car and stalked into his clinic
where, contrary to his custom, he snapped the heads
off his two housemen, a handful of students and an
unfortunate nurse who dropped a pile of notes on the
floor.
His clinic lasted longer than usual and his temper,
although once more in control, was no better. When
he remembered that he was taking Ursula to the
opera that evening it grew decidedly worse. To go
home and change into a dinner-jacket, go without his
dinner and spend the evening being sociable to her
many friends, have supper with them afterwards and
get home too late to work at the series of lectures he
was to give was more than he could tolerate, al-
though he saw no help for it. For once, however,
Fate was to treat him kindly, even if she hadn't been
as kind to the elderly man knocked down in the street
outside the hospital and rushed inside. He was pre-
paring to leave Sister's office, where he had been
discussing his list for the following afternoon, when
BETTY NEELS 67
the phone went and he was asked if he would go to
Casualty. Theatre Sister was surprised at the cheerful
manner with which he responded.
The man was severely injured: a fractured pelvis,
fractures of one leg and an arm. Mr van Linssen
forgot all about Ursula and the opera and spent sev-
eral hours in Theatre, putting the bones together
again. It was late. when he left to go home to Dodge
and the kind of meal only Dodge could conjure up
at a moment's notice. He was sitting at the table,
finishing his coffee, when Dodge told him that Miss
Kendall had telephoned twice and he had informed
her that his master was delayed at the hospital. He
didn't add that she had carried on something shock-
ing, but said smoothly that she had seemed a little
upset.
`I'll ring her presently.' He glanced at his watch.
`No, it's too late now. I'll have to do it tomorrow
when I've finished the clinic.'
Peter was waiting for him when he drove to the flat
in the morning. 'I knew you'd come,' he said hap-
pily. 'Grown-ups don't always do what they say
they're going to, but you do, don't you?'
`As far as possible, old chap. Jump in or we shall
be late.' He bade Trottie goodbye and settled the boy
beside him and, once at the hospital, handed him
over to the young doctor who had first seen him.
`Give me a ring when you're ready. I'll be in Theatre
for half an hour, then in Outpatients.'
68 FATE TAKES A HAND
It was rather more than half an hour by the time
Peter was dealt with, and a nurse was detailed to take
him over to Outpatients. Here he was sat on a bench
and told to wait until Mr van Linssen came for him,
something he was delighted to do, for there was so
much to see patients going in and out, nurses, doc-
tors, porters wheeling trolleys and, best of all, pres-
ently Mr van Linssen himself in a long white coat,
surrounded by the registrar, his housemen, several
students and Sister. He looked, thought Peter, like
one of the men in his book of heroes. His small chest
swelled with pride because they were friends.
Mr van Linssen lifted a hand in greeting and dis-
appeared through another door, and after ten minutes
or so came out again, this time without his white
coat.
`Trottie said she'd have coffee ready,' said Peter
hopefully in the car.
`Just what I need, but I can only stay for five
minutes. I'm operating this afternoon and I must go
round the ward first.'
`Yes, of course,' agreed Peter solemnly. 'I'm sure
Trottie will understand.'
Mr van Linssen, nicely filled with coffee and a
slice of Trottie' s cake, went back to work. He had
quite forgotten Ursula.
She phoned that evening soon after he got home
and he listened patiently to her cross voice telling
him just what she thought of him and, since he felt
guilty, he apologised handsomely. It was after he had
BETTY NEELS 69
put the receiver down that it occurred to him that he
would have to send more flowers...
Eulalia had just opened the shop when he got there
the next morning. At the sight of him she said, 'Pe-
ter's all right Trottie said so.' She eyed him anx-
iously. 'Is something wrong?'
He gave her a pointed good morning. 'Of course
not. How you do fly into a panic at the sight of me
am I such a harbinger of bad news?'
`Each time I see you I think it will be the last,'
she declared. 'Not more flowers? Hadn't it better be
a diamond brooch from Cartier?'
He gave her a level look. `Do not provoke me. I
have a nasty temper, and don't be impertinent!'
He came a little further into the shop and she saw
how tired he was. She said, 'I'm sorry, it's my
tongue, it runs away with me. I do try to think before
I speak but I don't always remember.' She smiled at
him. 'You're tired and that makes you cross. You
should have a holiday, away from the hospital and
London.'
`And my patients?' He was amused and all of a
sudden brisk. 'Now, these flowers something rather
special this time, I think.'
Lucky Ursula, reflected Eulalia. She only hoped
the wretched girl realised it. It seemed unlikely, but
perhaps she really did love him in her way, and she
thought he must love her. 'How about pale mauve
orchids and fern in one of these vases? They're a bit
FATE TAKES A HAND
70
expensive because they're nineteenth-century Staf-
fordshire Mrs Pearce goes around the antique
shops and buys up the real thing when she can find
it.' She held it up for his inspection. 'I'm sure Miss
Kendall would love it...'
He said without much interest, 'Very well, send it
to her home, will you some time today?' He paid
her, and with a brief goodbye left the shop. She
watched him cross the street and get into his car and
drive away. Perhaps this really was the last time she
would see him...
He hadn't written a card. His car had disappeared
into the stream of traffic and there was nothing to
do about it. She told Mrs Pearce when she arrived,
and was told to write a card herself and take the
flowers in her lunch-hour. 'I'll stay here until you
get back,' said Mrs Pearce. 'You can go more easily [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]