The Fateful Bargain. Бетти Нилс

you for the lift, Mr van Tecqx.’

      ‘I’m coming up, just to see you safely in.’ He had raised his voice deliberately, ‘You can’t manage Podge and your bag.’

      He stood beside her in her room, taking in its shabbiness and not saying a word. But when he turned to go he paused and dropped a kiss on her cheek. She uttered a surprised goodnight to an empty room.

      CHAPTER THREE

      EMILY LAY AWAKE far too long, thinking about Mr van Tecqx’s kiss. It had been a chaste salute but a kiss nevertheless; she had a nasty feeling that it was because he pitied her living in a poky attic.

      In consequence she had overslept, so that she had had to hurry over her dressing and sketchy breakfast, attend to Podge and then hurry through the streets to the Underground. The day went wrong from the start. Sister Cook was in a bad mood, finding fault with everyone and everything. Emily was off duty at five o’clock, but long before that she would have given a great deal to have bolted from the ward and rushed home to Podge’s undemanding company. It was mid-afternoon when Sister Cook sent for her.

      ‘You’re to go to the office at once,’ she stated. ‘I have no idea why, but it’s highly inconvenient. How I’m expected to run this ward with half the trained nurses for ever going to the office, I don’t know!’

      Emily said meekly, ‘Yes, Sister,’ and sped away. Mr van Tecqx might have given Sister Cook a hint; now she would have to report back from the Office and explain why she was leaving. Her tired brain really couldn’t cope with it. She tapped on the SNO’s door and was bidden to enter.

      The SNO was a good deal easier than Sister Cook. She appeared to find nothing strange in Mr van Tecqx’s request that Emily should leave within a few weeks in order to nurse his sister. Emily was not of course to know that the SNO was an old friend of his mother… She said, ‘Yes, Miss Webb!’ and ‘No, Miss Webb,’ when necessary and got herself out of the office. There were no obstacles put in the way of her leaving and she might return if she wished and finish her training, but she doubted very much if Sister Cook would see things in the same light. She went back to the ward, took a deep heartening breath, and tapped on Sister’s door.

      Sister Cook was seated at her desk and Mr van Tecqx was leaning against a wall, looking what Emily could only think of as smug.

      Sister’s voice, pitched fortissimo for most of the day, was surprisingly dulcet. ‘Ah—yes, Nurse Grenfell. Mr van Tecqx has been explaining to me that you’re exactly the nurse that he would wish for his sister. I’ve agreed that you should leave in two weeks’ time, and should you decide to return to finish your training here later on, I for one can see no objection.’

      Emily didn’t look at Mr van Tecqx; he had obviously been laying on the charm, and pretty thickly too. She said, ‘Yes, Sister, thank you,’ in her calm way, and stood waiting to be told to go.

      ‘Mr van Tecqx tells me he has to make known his arrangements to you before he returns to Holland. You’ll go off duty at five o’clock punctually, Nurse Grenfell, so that you may be briefed.’