Cobweb Morning Read online

  Alexandra waited for Penny to object, but she didn’t; she followed Miss Thrums meekly from the room, only pausing by Taro to ask: ‘Taro, please may I talk to you when I come down? I’ll only be a few minutes.’

  Her smile, when he agreed, was exactly right—apologetic, sweet and appealing.

  Alexandra sitting by the fire still, said nothing—indeed, she could think of nothing to say. Presumably she would be given the polite sack very shortly; she had half expected to be sent back with Penny—perhaps the doctor was about to do it now. She looked at him inquiringly and he smiled.

  ‘Do you find me hard-hearted?’ he asked her. ‘I could think of no other way of getting her to own up—besides, I could have been mistaken; the amnesia could have been genuine.’

  ‘It must have been very difficult for you,’ Alexandra agreed soberly, ‘and horrid too. I’m sorry—perhaps when everything’s settled, you could meet Penny again.’

  His surprise was absolute; it was a pity that she wasn’t looking at him and didn’t see it. It gave way to amusement almost immediately and when she did look up it was to see a faint smile round his mouth. ‘Do you think I should?’ he inquired of her.

  ‘Well, it’s nothing to do with me, but I imagine one’s feelings don’t change…especially when one had already guessed…and when one’s happiness…’ She came to a halt, bogged down in ones.

  ‘Ah, yes, of course,’ said her companion, ‘then one must do something about it, mustn’t one?’

  She cast him an annoyed look. ‘There’s no need to mock me,’ she pointed out sharply. ‘You’ve always done that.’

  ‘It’s called defensive action,’ he murmured. ‘Alexandra, I have to go back to Leiden—a patient— I shall be half an hour or so, no longer, for I want to be here when Penny leaves. If someone comes for her before I get back will you ask them to wait and telephone me? Better still, tell Pieters to do that. But I should be back in ample time. This evening I think we might have a talk, there is a lot I want to say to you.’

  About Penny? Certainly he would give her notice. She said calmly: ‘Oh, yes, about me going.’

  ‘No, it’s not…’ He would have said more, but the door opened and Penny came in. Alexandra could see by her face exactly what she planned to do; she didn’t think the doctor would change his mind, but one could never be sure and Penny could be very beguiling—and Taro was a rich prize. Penny looked prettier than ever and very defenceless; Alexandra didn’t wait to see any more but slipped out of the room with the girl’s plaintive, ‘Oh, Taro…’ ringing in her ears.

  She was in her room making tentative efforts to get her things ready to pack at a moment’s notice when she heard Penny coming up the staircase. She was crying heartbrokenly and muttering to herself, so that Alexandra threw down a pile of undies and dashed out, intent on comforting her, but Penny ran down the passage to her room and locked the door behind her and no amount of knocking would persuade her to open it. Alexandra gave up presently and started back to her own room where she found Miss Thrums standing in her doorway. She said calmly: ‘Don’t worry, my dear, she’s a very excitable girl, isn’t she? I’ve been expecting something like this, and so have you. Taro hadn’t time to tell me much, but what he hasn’t told I think I have guessed, and now she’s been trying to charm him into letting her stay. I really believe that she thought it would be a—walkover. It would be useless, of course, if she had known him better, she would never have attempted to make him change his mind.’ She stood aside. ‘Come in for a few minutes and talk to me. I must admit that I am upset about the whole business, although it hasn’t come as a complete surprise to me—one has a sixth sense, perhaps. Taro will be back shortly and Penny will stay in her room until he does.’

  She was quite wrong. Neither she nor Alexandra heard Penny’s soft descent of the staircase. She was carrying her coat and a zipper bag, empty, under one arm.

  It was quite ten minutes later when Pieters knocked on the door. ‘It’s the Miss,’ he said hesitantly. ‘Five minutes ago I see her walking to the gate at the back. She has a bag and Butch on his lead. Perhaps it is in order, but it seems not right.’ He looked from one to the other. ‘The bag is moving,’ he added in a puzzled voice.

  Alexandra had got out of her chair. ‘Pieters, did you hear Miss Penny say anything? Earlier perhaps, when she came upstairs?’

  His mild blue eyes widened. ‘Yes, Miss Dobbs—she speaks with the doctor and comes upstairs. I do not understand everything but it was: “I will make him remember—He will pay…”’

  The two ladies exchanged glances. At the door Alexandra said: ‘I’ll get my coat and find her. Pieters, have you seen the cats?’

  It seemed a silly question. ‘No, miss. Their plates stand ready in the kitchen, but they are not there—that is not as usual.’

  She was on the way downstairs, putting on her coat as she went. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she knew where Penny had gone and what she was going to do. There was a canal beyond the lane at the back of the grounds and she had Butch with her, and Alexandra was willing to bet her month’s salary that the cats were in the zipper bag. They were going to be Penny’s payment.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  RUNNING was hazardous, but run Alexandra did, with all possible speed, slipping and stumbling first on the short turf and then on the icy lane, made more treacherous by the light powdering of snow falling from a dull grey sky.

  But she had one advantage, her progress was almost silent, and she was on the rough little path leading to the canal before Penny heard her. She was kneeling down, tying a rusty iron bar to Butch’s lead—left lying about by some fool, thought Alexandra wildly, while beside her in the zipper bag, Nibbles and Kiki chorused fearfully, but when she saw Alexandra she dropped the bar and picked up the bag. Alexandra, on the bank now, unzipping her boots and ripping off her coat, saw the little eddy of muddy water rise to the surface as it was flung into the canal.

  The cats first, she thought incoherently; if she were quick—and lucky—she would be in time to save Butch as well; the iron bar would take some fastening and he wouldn’t be easy to heave into the water. She dived in neatly, alongside the muddy spiral of water, to find it numbingly cold and dark, but she was a splendid swimmer, and even hampered as she was by her clothes, she located the bag almost at once, although it was already sinking into the thick mud on the canal’s bottom and it took several precious seconds to free it, but she hauled it loose and gained the surface, thankful to find the bank so near. But she still had to reach it and she would have to hold the bag above water—no easy task, for the cats inside were struggling to free themselves, half drowned though they were. She trod water, the bag balanced precariously on a shoulder, but what with cats and cold she was half drowning herself by now, so that Taro’s dive to bring him up beside her went unnoticed until his voice, very matter-of-fact, said in her ear: ‘Give me the bag, my dear. Can you make it to the bank?’

  She nodded; speech was impossible for the moment, her teeth were chattering too hard, but without the bag it was easier and she contrived to say: ‘Butch…’

  Taro was hauling her on to the bank with more speed than delicacy. ‘Pieters is here, don’t worry.’ He added on a laugh, ‘And Aunty, bless her!’

  Alexandra scrambled untidily to her feet, her clothes clung, heavy with ice, muddy water and freely festooned with bits of weed. Her hair had come undone and was streaming in a dripping mass over her shoulders. The doctor put an arm round her shoulders and said pleasantly: ‘The Witch of Endor in person. Come on.’

  Aunty was standing with Pieters, and growling Butch stood between them facing Penny, but Miss Thrums turned at their approach. ‘Safe and sound, I see,’ she remarked cheerfully. ‘Get Alexandra into her boots, Taro, and give me the bag, I’ll go straight to the house with Nibbles and Kiki.’

  She was given the bag and Taro said something to her, but Alexandra had no idea what it was, she was suddenly tired and giddy, brought to a standstill by fright and c
old. She felt the doctor’s arm tighten around her shoulders and leaned her sopping head gratefully against his wet shoulder, clinging on to him with both hands, just as though, now that the danger was over, she were indeed drowning. She could have stayed like that, wet and shivering with cold and utterly happy, for ever, but her companion’s firm: ‘Now, now, girl, much though I’m enjoying this little interlude, I think we should get back to the house,’ brought her to her senses.

  ‘Penny?’ she asked.

  He gestured briefly. Penny, with Pieters beside her, was ahead of them, being escorted back to the house. Taro took her arm and began striding ahead, taking her with him at a fine rate. ‘Speed is the essence,’ he said cheerfully, ‘hot bath and a double whisky afterwards.’ He glanced down at her and grinned. ‘Two baths, perhaps.’

  They went along the lane and through the gate once more and this time he paused to lock it. But now there would be no need to do that, for when they reached the hall there was a serious-looking young woman and a middle-aged man waiting for them. The doctor greeted them briefly and went across to speak to Penny, but he was back again in a moment to give Alexandra a friendly push in the direction of the stairs. ‘Up with you,’ he commanded. ‘I’ll send Nel up with the whisky, we’ll talk later.’

  But first she had to say good-bye to Penny; she mounted the stairs afterwards, dragging her wet cold feet a little, Penny’s softly spoken words still in her ears. ‘If ever I get the chance, I’ll do you a bad turn,’ she had said, and smiled brilliantly, and Alexandra had no doubt, given the opportunity, she would.

  But a hot bath and freshly washed hair did a great deal towards putting things into their proper perspective. She put on the wool dress and did her face and hair and feeling a little peculiar from the whisky, went downstairs.

  She went straight to the kitchen, knowing that there was the most likely place for the cats to be. They were lying before the warmth of the Aga, looking decidedly under the weather, though Miss Thrums, who was with them, assured her that the vet had been, pronounced them very little the worse for wear, given them suitable injections and gone off to the study with Taro to take a look at Butch. She bent to stroke Kiki. ‘And you, my dear, you’re none the worse, I hope—so brave—all that icy water, none of us can thank you enough.’ She looked Alexandra over carefully. ‘I must say that you look perfectly all right, and such a nice colour.’

  ‘Whisky—but I feel fine, thank you.’

  Miss Thrums took off her glasses and polished them. ‘Penny has gone.’ She put her glasses on again and looked at Alexandra through them. ‘Just for a little while I was afraid that she was going to get her way.’

  ‘Her way?’ A stupid question when she knew the answer.

  ‘Why, she wanted Taro, my dear, and more than that, she wanted his wealth and this house—not that she loved him; he could give her these things, though—silly of me not to realize it sooner and foolish of me to suppose, even for a moment, that she would succeed, but as one grows older I suppose one becomes more fanciful.’

  ‘Then I must be very old indeed,’ said Alexandra, ‘because I had the same fancy, but unlike you, Miss Thrums, I was terrified that it would come true.’ She smiled bleakly. ‘I was so frightened…’

  Miss Thrums smiled very kindly. ‘My dear, it would be quite natural, in the circumstances, for you to feel like that.’

  ‘Feel like what?’ asked Taro from the door. He strolled towards them, cast a quick professional eye over the cats and then took a more leisurely survey of Alexandra. ‘Feel like what?’ he asked again, and he so obviously expected an answer that she said hastily: ‘Oh, we were just talking…’ and was rescued by Miss Thrums’: ‘We were talking about Penny, Taro—I think that we both felt that something wasn’t quite right, but it’s so hard to know just when.’

  ‘What is to become of her?’ asked Alexandra. ‘Will she go to her parents?’

  He shook his head. ‘Her boy-friend, so she told me. She wasn’t in the least sorry for trying to drown Butch and these two, you know, and she wouldn’t tell me why she had done it, though I suspect that she wanted to get even with me. She needs treatment, of course, has needed it for years—long before she had the car crash.’ He stirred Nibbles with a gentle toe. ‘Shall we go to the sitting-room and have a drink—I’ve asked Pieters to put dinner forward half an hour; I have to go out again this evening.’ He looked at Alexandra. ‘I’d like to talk to you before I go.’ His eyes were intent on her. ‘You’re none the worse for your swim? What a difference a bath does make.’

  She contrived a smile. ‘I’m fine—the whisky was a bit strong.’

  He laughed. ‘It was meant to be. You’re pretty good in the water, aren’t you?’

  She said with a complete lack of conceit: ‘I can swim well—my brother taught me, but I was frightened.’

  ‘So was I.’

  ‘How did you know where we were? Oh, Miss Thrums, of course.’

  ‘And Pieters—I was met by a mixed chorus, rendered, thank heaven, with such brisk clarity that I was on the bank only a few seconds after you had gone in—very long seconds, Alexandra.’

  She coloured faintly and didn’t answer and he said pleasantly: ‘Well, how about that drink?’ becoming all at once the genial host.

  They had their coffee in the sitting-room, and Miss Thrums, making no bones about it, declared that they would want to have their little talk while she went to see how the cats were faring and confer with Pieters. The doctor closed the door behind her and came back to his chair, and Alexandra, wishing to take the bull by the horns, said at once:

  ‘You would like me to leave, wouldn’t you? I haven’t a job here now, have I? but you don’t have to feel awkward about giving me the sack—I shall go home and have that holiday I never got around to.’ She didn’t look at him. ‘I’ve already put my things together, all I need is your advice as to how to get back.’

  He didn’t reply at once so that she glanced at him after a moment to find him smiling. ‘Well, you won’t get it, dear girl; I’ve other plans for your immediate future—if you would care to hear them?’

  She nodded, her heart thumping uncomfortably, unbidden thoughts racing wildly around inside her head.

  ‘A colleague of mine—I was talking to him this morning—is desperate for a nurse in the recovery room at his hospital in Rotterdam. There are several there, this one is the best—it would only be for a few weeks, filling a gap. Would you consider taking it—we’ll see to the technicalities, all you will need to do is pack your bag and present yourself for duty.’

  ‘When?’ She forced her voice to sound businesslike.

  ‘As soon as you like.’ He gave her a slow smile. ‘I shall miss you.’

  She ignored the smile. ‘I can be ready tomorrow morning.’

  ‘Splendid. I’ll run you down and hand you over, it’s only twenty-five miles or so. Is eight o’clock too early?’

  He couldn’t get rid of her fast enough. She pushed the sad thought aside and said briskly: ‘Of course not. It is only a temporary arrangement?’

  ‘Yes, two or three weeks at the most, maybe less. The salary is quite good, you’ll live in and no language problems, almost everyone you will work with will speak English of a sort.’ His eyes searched her face. ‘Alexandra, do you ever think of that fellow Ferris?’

  She was so astounded that she could only gape at him. ‘Anthony?’ she managed at last. ‘Good heavens, no—whatever made you ask that?’

  He shrugged. ‘Nothing in particular.’ He had got to his feet as he spoke. ‘I have to go—I’ll see you at breakfast. Good night.’

  She wished him a calm good night—it would be, she reflected unhappily, the last good night she was likely to exchange with him. He had got rid of her with an expertise which commanded her admiration while it surprised her too. She had hoped, now that she allowed herself to think about it, that he would have invited her to stay another day at least before she went back to England; she had actually begun to delude h
erself into thinking that he liked her, instead of which he was giving ample proof that he wanted her out of the way as soon as possible. A variety of wild ideas stirred in her brain; perhaps Penny hadn’t gone back to England after all, perhaps he was even now on his way to see her, perhaps… She was interrupted by the return of Miss Thrums, who sat herself down with her knitting and wanted to know in a most ordinary voice at what time she would be leaving in the morning.

  ‘You know,’ exclaimed Alexandra, and added peevishly: ‘If he told you why couldn’t he have told me earlier?’

  ‘Men take a long time to make up their minds,’ remarked Miss Thrums obscurely, ‘and once they have, no power on earth will alter them, however awkward it is for everyone else. He only told me before dinner, dear, and then it was because he wanted my advice as to whether you would be likely to accept.’

  ‘Yes, but surely there was a Dutch nurse available? I could just as easily have left tomorrow morning and gone home.’

  Her companion made a vague sound which could have meant anything, and went on: ‘I daresay Taro thought you might like the opportunity of seeing something of Holland while you are here. There are some good shops in Rotterdam—not that it is my favourite city, I prefer The Hague. Amsterdam is beautiful too, but rather given over to modern youth, although there are still parts of it which are quite delightful. Perhaps you will have a chance to go to The Hague.’ She rattled on, not giving Alexandra a chance to say a word. ‘There are some tea-shops there—their cakes are delicious, although I have always thought that our English muffins and tea cakes cannot be bettered.’