The Fifth Day of Christmas. Бетти Нилс
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a couple of hours, and went away, discussing the merits of a nice toad-in-the-hole as opposed to Quiche Lorraine. Scarcely had they gone when the two doctors presented themselves at the door and spent half an hour examining their patient and studying charts after which her own doctor pronounced himself well satisfied as to her condition and promised to be out the following morning. ‘And the nurse,’ he observed, ‘I fancy she’ll be here very shortly,’ he smiled at Julia. ‘You’ll be free to go, Nurse, with my grateful thanks.’
Julia murmured a reply, thankful that she had made up the bed in the room next to hers. She would get someone to light a fire there as soon as possible. The doctor shook her hand in a powerful grip, thanked her once more and went downstairs. Presently she heard his car making its careful way back to the road.
When she went downstairs presently the doctor was nowhere to be seen, but when she went into the hall she heard his voice in the sitting room, an icy apartment which housed the telephone which she was pleased to see he was using. He looked up as she went in and said cheerfully,
‘We’re on again, and the wind has brought back the electric too.’ He got up and came towards her. ‘What do you think of Doctor MacIntory?’
Julia looked at him, her head a little on one side. ‘He seemed very nice—so that’s his name. Do you plan to go tomorrow if the nurse comes tonight?’
He nodded. ‘If you have no objection, I’m anxious to get home.’ He smiled suddenly and because his smile gave her a faintly lightheaded sensation, she said the first thing which came into her head. ‘What sort of car have you got?’ she wanted to know.
‘Come and see,’ he invited, and went to fetch the cloak hanging behind the kitchen door and wrapped her in it and gave her his hand to hold because the steps were ice-covered again. The stable was gloomy and cold and could have housed half a dozen motor cars; there was only one there now—the doctor’s and well worth housing. It was a Jensen Interceptor, gleaming and sleek and powerful. She walked round it exclaiming, ‘What a lovely car—how fast does she go?’
He laughed. ‘Just over a hundred and thirty miles an hour, but we’ll be lucky if we manage fifty in this weather.’
Julia withdrew her head from the interior of the car and turned to look at him. She said politely, ‘Look, I’m sure you’re anxious to be gone. Would you like to go now? There’s nothing to keep you, you’ve seen the doctor and done more than you need…the nurse might not come…I can go back by train.’
She got no further, for the doctor had her by the shoulders and was shaking her gently. ‘I have no patience with you,’ he said a trifle testily. ‘Of course I’m anxious to get home, but you don’t really think that I would go just like that and leave you here? Besides, I like company on a long journey and I should have to wait for you in London.’ His hands tightened on her shoulders as he bent his head to kiss her. ‘Have you forgotten, Julia, that I’ve engaged you to look after Marcia?’
Being kissed like that had made her forget everything, but it didn’t seem very wise to say so. She withdrew a little from him and said in a commendably sensible voice, ‘No, of course I hadn’t.’ A very large image of the beautiful Miss Jason floated before her eyes. She said firmly, ‘I think I must go and see how Mary…’ then paused, frowning. ‘I can hear…there’s a cat here,’ she said quickly. ‘Oh, the poor thing!’
The doctor went past her to a corner of the stable. ‘Yes, there is,’ he said casually. ‘At least, there are five—mother and kittens—look!’
Julia peered down into the apple box filled with straw which he indicated, and the mother cat, with the kittens crawling around her, peered back. Julia said in a voice soft with pity, ‘Oh, please can’t we take them inside and feed them?’
‘She’s the stable cat and won’t stay in the house. I found the box for her before the kittens arrived and I’ve fed her regularly. She’s fine. I’ll tell Jane or Madge to keep an eye on them when we go.’
Julia stooped and put out a finger, and the cat licked it politely and then turned to the more urgent business of washing her kittens. Julia stood up and looked at her companion. ‘You’re very kind. A lot of men wouldn’t have bothered,’ she said. ‘Why didn’t you tell me? I could have fed her.’
‘You had enough to do. You’re a practical young woman, aren’t you, Julia?’
Part of her mind registered the pleasing fact that he had called her Julia twice within a few minutes while she replied, ‘I don’t know—I suppose being in hospital makes one practical.’ She started walking towards the door. ‘Do you think the nurse will come today? It’s already five o’clock and very dark.’
The doctor opened the stable door before he replied. The wind was slight but icy cold and Julia shivered and wrapped her voluminous cape more closely round her as they made their way back to the house.
‘I should think the trains are running,’ said the doctor. ‘She’s coming straight from Edinburgh to Hawick and if the doctor could get through so can a taxi.’
It seemed his words were to be ratified. Barely an hour later a car rolled to a halt at the front door. Julia heard it from Mary’s room where she was doing the evening chores, and hurried downstairs to welcome the arrival, but Doctor van den Werff had heard the taxi too and was already there, talking to a small woman, who could have been any age from forty to fifty, and whose pleasant face lighted up with a smile when she saw Julia. The doctor performed the introductions smoothly, giving them barely time to utter the most commonplace civilities before suggesting that the kitchen might be a warmer place than the draughty hall.
‘Oh, how thoughtless of me,’ cried Julia, ‘you and the driver must be frozen!’ She led the way to the kitchen. ‘I’m sure Jane won’t mind if I make you some tea.’ She arranged Miss MacBonar on one side of the stove and the driver on the other and went to where Jane was making pastry at the table.
‘You don’t mind,’ she begged that lady, ‘if they sit here get warm, and would you mind very much if I made them some tea? I’m afraid we’ve used the kitchen to live in while you’ve been away.’
Jane smiled. ‘Aye, it’s a cold house, Nurse—it’s been none too easy for you, I daresay. And don’t worry about the tea. Madge made it when she heard the taxi. Should I keep the driver here for his supper, do you think? It’ll be easier going on the way home if he’s got something hot inside him.’
‘What a good idea. I’m going back to Miss Mary now and then I’ll come back and take Miss MacBonar up to meet her. I expect you know that the doctor and I are leaving tomorrow?’
Madge gave her a quick glance. ‘Aye, he told me. A kind gentleman he is, ye’ll have a safe journey with him.’
Julia said a little shyly, ‘Yes, I’m sure I shall,’ and made her way through the icy hall and up the stairs to Mary, who was sitting up in her chair by the fire, demanding to know exactly what the new nurse was like.
‘Nice,’ said Julia promptly. ‘If I were ill I should like her to nurse me—I’m going to fetch her in a few minutes and then I’ll get your supper and take her down to have supper with us.’ She picked up the insulin syringe. ‘Now roll up your sleeve, Mary—it’s time for your injection.’
Nurse MacBonar and Mary took to each other on sight; Julia left them together while she went down for Mary’s tray and having settled that young lady to her satisfaction, took her colleague along to her own room to give her the details of her patient. ‘And your room’s next door,’ she explained, ‘and I’m sure if you don’t like it no one will mind if you change. I’m afraid we just took the first ones we saw when we arrived. There’s a fire going and I’ve put a hot water bottle in the bed. I wondered if you would like half an hour to yourself until supper? I’ll come and fetch you.’
They went downstairs together a little later to find that the table had been laid in the dining room, a forbidding apartment with a great many hunting trophies on its walls and a quantity of heavy