Part 19 (1/2)

' And a good thing too as it turned out, for Nick must have hurried round the back of the hospital and in at the other side so that he couldn't help but meet her if she went back to the Home.

He came face to face with them outside the Home door and Sarre said pleasantly: ”Ah, good evening, Penrose,” and stopped long enough to add: ”T hear that the shoulder we did is making good progress.

I'll be back in a couple of weeks, but he'll be gone by then, I suppose.

' He nodded a casual goodbye and opened the door for Alethea.

”T'll be here,” he told her, 'waiting.

' The Jaguar ate up the miles, heading for Harwich and the night ferry,

and Alethea, sitting beside Sarre, listening to his casual

conversation, felt a surge of excitement.

Until that moment, everything had seemed like a dream, an improbable one which wasn't likely to come true, but it was coming true.

Perhaps she should have insisted upon more time in which to make up her mind, she was suddenly beset by any number of vague fears, not one of them concrete enough to furnish her with enough material to worry over, yet all of them looming at the back of her head like a creeping fog.

”Sarre,” she began, to be instantly hushed by his: ”Don't say it, Alethea, you're scared, aren't you?

It's actually happening, isn't it?

and you feel as though you're being hustled and bustled into something you're suddenly not sure about.

But you're not; you're coming to spend a few days with me and my family

and if at the end of that time you feel you can't go through with it, then all you have to do is say so.

I told you that, my dear; the door is still wide open for you to

escape.

' He made it sound so logical and normal, she said at once: ”Of course you're right, Sarre-it's last-minute nerves.

' He chuckled.

”Cured by a drink and dinner!

We'll stop at Marks Tey.

' They had plenty of time; they dined at leisure and then went on

again, arriving exactly at the right time to go on board without a long

wait.

Rather to Alethea's disappointment, Sarre showed no inclination to keep her up talking; he suggested that she went straight to her cabin, told her that he had arranged for her to be called in the morning and wished her a friendly goodnight, and despite her vague peevishness at this she

slept well and her good humour was quite restored by his cheerful greeting when she went on deck after her morning tea.

The ferry was on the point of docking and she looked about her with interest; true, the Hock of Holland looked very much like Harwich, but it was a foreign country and she had never travelled outside Great Britain before.

Sarre stood beside her, watching the bustle on the quay until it was time for them to get into the car, drive through Customs and finally start on their journey to Groningen.

It was still very early, not yet seven o'clock, but there was a good deal of traffic on the road.

Sarre drove towards den Haag, bypa.s.sed that city and took the motorway north.

He travelled at speed now until they were north of Leiden, when he turned on to the Haarlem road with the remark that they would stop for breakfast very shortly.

Alethea would have been content to go on; she was hungry, but there was so much to see that that didn't seem important at the moment.

All the same, when they stopped presently at a charming restaurant in the woods outside that city she discovered that she was ravenous and fell to on the rolls and toast, the thin slices of ham, the eggs and cheese with which their table was laden.

”T shall get fat, ”she observed comfortably as she poured more coffee for them both.

”You don't eat a breakfast like this every morning, do you?

' Sarre nodded.

”Oh, yes--not quite as much, perhaps.

You will quickly become accustomed to it.

' ”Will your children be at home when we get there?

' He glanced at his watch.

”They come out of school at twelve o'clock, and we should be home well before then.