Part 9 (2/2)
He picked up her cases and walked out of the station to the car, put the cases in the boot and stowed her in the front seat.
”Hungry?” he asked as he started the car.
”Yes.”
”We'll soon be home.” He didn't speak again and she was left with her thoughts and very muddled they were.
The Bentley made light of the journey. They were in Leiden while she was still sorting out her problems and presently the doctor stopped in a pleasant narrow street lined with old gabled houses and got out, opened her door and led her across the narrow cobbled pavement and up double steps to a handsome door with a fanlight over it. He unlocked it and pushed her gently before him just as Mies came from the kitchen.
Cressida stood in the hall, his arm around her shoulders, listening to him talking to his housekeeper, who presently clucked in a motherly fas.h.i.+on and led her away and up a charming little staircase to a pretty bedroom where she took Cressida's coat from her, still clucking, and opened the door to a small and exquisitely fitted bathroom and left her.
Cressida looked around her. The bed looked inviting; to fall into it and go to sleep at once was a tempting idea. Instead she went to look at herself in the triple mirror on the delicate little table under the window. She was horrified at what she saw; a tearstained face, not over-clean, hair all over the place and a pink nose. She washed and combed her hair and wondered what to do next. Should she go downstairs or was she supposed to go to bed? She had no clothes until someone brought her cases. She opened the door cautiously and peered down the stairs.
The doctor was in the hall and both the dogs were with him.
”Come on down if you're ready,” he invited.
”Mies is putting supper on the table--you said you were hungry.” When she reached the bottom of the stairs he asked, ”What do you think of Caesar? This is Mabel, rather large but as mild as a lamb.”
His manner was brisk, like that, she supposed, of an elder brother taking dutiful care of a younger sister and exactly what was needed to rea.s.sure her, as the doctor very well knew.
”In here,” he invited and opened a door. The room was of a good size with panelled walls and an ornate plaster ceiling from which hung a bra.s.s candelabrum. The furniture was old and beautifully cared for and the oval table had been laid with a damask cloth and s.h.i.+ning silver and gla.s.s.
”But it's past midnight,” said Cressida.
”Who's going to clear away and wash up?”
”Mies has help in the mornings; the two girls who come will clear away and tidy things up.”
Mies came in then with a tureen of soup and said something, and he made a reply which made her smile broadly as she answered him.
”Mies says she will go to bed when you do and you are to enjoy your sup per.”
The soup smelled delicious and tasted even better, Cressida was hungry, she polished off the soup, the cheese souffle which followed and the creme brulee which rounded off their meal, and then, mindful of the lateness of the hour, refused coffee and asked if she might go to bed.
The doctor bade her goodnight, handed her over to Mies and went to his study to finish the work he had been doing when Come had telephoned.
The dogs went with him and he sat at his desk with them beside him, deep in thought. It was quite some time before he bestirred himself, and, with a sigh, picked up his pen.
As for Cressida, finding that someone had taken her cases to her room and unpacked what she might need for the night, she sank into a hot bath, only half awake, and then tumbled into bed. There was too much to think about all at once; sensibly she closed her eyes and went to sleep.
A stout girl with a rosy face and a broad smile wakened her with a small tea-tray, drew back the curtains revealing a grey sky and a heavy frost, and then went away again. Cressida drank her tea, hopped out of bed and ran the bath. She had no idea what was to happen next but it seemed sense to get dressed and be ready for whatever transpired.
The doctor came out of his study with the dogs as she reached the hall. His good morning was friendly and decidedly brisk.
”Breakfast and then we'll be off. We are expected for lunch.”
Cressida found her voice.
”Yes, that's all very well, but where and what happens to me when we get there? It's really very kind of you to bother about me, but I've still got my ticket...”
He swept her into the dining-room and pulled out a chair. She sat down because it seemed the only thing to do; besides she was hungry and her eyes had caught a basket of delicious croissants on the table. Eggs too, and a sizeable dish of ham as well as elegant silver-topped gla.s.s jars filled with marmalade and jam. Mies came in with a silver coffee-pot, beaming and nodding.
”Smakelijk eten,” she said.
Cressida, wrinkling her nose at the heavenly smell of coffee, said a polite, ”Dank pounds ,” reflecting that she was going to enjoy every crumb of her meal.
The doctor had seated himself at the head of the table, the dogs on either side.
”Perhaps you would rather have tea?” he said.
”Oh, no, thank you. Do you want me to pour?”
”Please. Try one of these croissants.” He pa.s.sed the basket, the elaborate silver egg stand and the salt and pepper and then enquired as to whether she had slept well.
”Yes, it was a lovely comfy bed. I meant to stay awake and think but I was rather tired. Could we please talk, Dr. van der Linus? There really is no need to go all the way to Friesland. I'm sure I can get work if I go back to England.”
He helped himself to ham.
”What as?”
”Well, as a companion, I suppose...” The memory of Jonkvrouw van Germert was a bit daunting but surely not all employers were like her?
He pa.s.sed his cup for more coffee.
”Let us strike a bargain. Come with me to Friesland this morning and if you don't like the idea of finding work there I will personally put you on the ferry for England.”
She bit into a croissant. If she went back to England she would never see him again, on the other hand since she had chosen to make her way in the world that was a matter of little importance. The wretched Nicola would get round him and he would forgive her and marry her and be unhappy ever after. ”You can have ten minutes,” said the doctor in a no-nonsense voice, 'and bring everything with you. ”
She swallowed her coffee and started up the stairs and then dawdled when she heard him say, ”Ah, Nicola,” as he answered the ringing phone. It was a pity that her knowledge of Dutch was so spa.r.s.e and there was nothing to tell from is voice.
Mies saw them on their way with a good hearty handshake and what Cressida took to be kindly ad vice. The dogs, on the rugs on the back seat, settled down, and the doctor drove off.
”Shouldn't you be at the hospital?” asked Cressida.
”Occasionally I take a day off.” He took the road through Alkmaar and over the Afsluitdijk and she found so much to see that conversation wasn't really necessary. They were nearing Leeuwarden when the doctor said, ”These friends of mine the van der Bronses, Tyco and Charity they've been married just over a year, she's expecting a baby in a couple of months, there are two little girls who are from his first marriage, Teile and Letizia they're twins and they adore Charity.”
”They don't mind having me like this at a moment's notice?”
”They're pleased. They haven't been living in Friesland very long; Tyco's father decided to sell his business and move into a villa he owns just outside Sneek, not too far away, and Tyco took over his big house. He's consultant at Leeuwarden and goes to Amsterdam fairly regularly. He's a very good surgeon. We were at medical school together. ”
”Do you live near here?”
”Yes. North of Dokk.u.m, a few miles from the Wadenzee.” He offered no more information and she didn't like to ask questions; there was, she reflected briefly, no future in their acquaintance.
Half an hour later he was stopping before the van der Brons home, a large country house set in a pleas ant small park with open country all around. Nothing could have been warmer than the welcome Cressida received. She had been feeling incredibly nervous of meeting the doctor's friends but at the first sight of them she knew that she had been needlessly so. Mr. van der Brons, as large a man as the doctor, had a kind face and twinkling eyes, he was handsome too which made it all the more surprising that his wife was as ordinary to look at as Cressida herself. True, she was wearing the kind of clothes Cressida envied at first look, and she was beautifully made up, but she was still plain. Cressida took instant comfort from that fact.
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