The Fateful Bargain Read online

  For Mevrouw van Tecqx she bought a box of marrons glacés, something she had always hankered after herself and had never had. That left her with just enough money for her fare home and a cup of coffee and a roll.

  Back at the house, she wrapped her gifts carefully and wondered if she had done right not to buy anything for Mr van Tecqx. She had found a suitable card for him, but would that be enough? What could she find for someone who appeared to have everything?

  She went to bed worrying about it.

  It was the following afternoon, after Dirk had been to visit Lucillia and Emily had begun the laborious business of getting that young lady back into her bed, that she glanced out of the window and saw someone in the garden. It had been snowing again and although it was almost night the figure showed up darkly against the whiteness of the snow. It was a man, moving furtively towards the house, so intent on the ground-floor windows that he didn’t look up to see Emily. He disappeared around the side of the house and she made rather a business of drawing the curtains, waiting to see if he returned. Which he did, going stealthily from one clump of ornamental trees to a rhododendron bush and then on to the shelter of the group of birch trees by the ornamental pool.

  Lucillia was still in her chair, and Emily closed the curtains finally and said in a voice which held no hint of her disquiet, ‘I’ve just remembered Anneke wanted to know if you fancied one of her special omelettes. You’d enjoy that, wouldn’t you? I’ll just pop down and tell her.’

  The only person in the kitchen was one of the maids. Bas, she told Emily, had gone down to the cellars, Anneke had gone upstairs to fetch a clean apron and the other maid had a half day.

  The girl spoke only Dutch; it took a few precious minutes to understand her and time, Emily considered, was of the essence. ‘Tell Bas…’ she began, and saw the lack of any understanding in the face of the girl. She dredged up her few words of Dutch and said, ‘Pen, paper?’

  When she had them, she wrote a note for Anneke in English. ‘Anneke,’ she said, and waved it at the girl and smiled encouragingly before letting herself out of the door beyond the various rooms beyond the kitchen.

  It was dark outside, but not as dark as it had appeared from indoors. Emily stood for a minute while her eyes accustomed themselves to the night, shivering a little, for in her hurry she hadn’t thought about a coat. Only to get outside and find whoever it was and find out why he was there…

  The snow was soft under her feet and she made little sound as she went round to the side of the house where she had seen the intruder. He was standing very still, peering into the drawing-room; the curtains had been drawn, but there was a small gap large enough for anyone outside to get a good view of the room. All that silver and china, thought Emily, and all he has to do is to get the french windows open.

  She was filled with sudden indignation that anyone should dare. She walked quietly until she reached his hunched up back and tapped him on the shoulder.

  ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ she wanted to know. ‘You have no business here!’

  He spun round and caught her by the arm, giving it a cruel twist. She couldn’t understand a word he said, but it sounded very nasty, uttered in a rough voice, and too late she realised she had been rather silly to have challenged him on her own. It was also too late to be prudent now. She said firmly, ‘Let go of my arm at once. You’d better go before I call the police.’

  He took no notice, but then why should he, since he couldn’t understand a word she was saying? Instead he took a firmer grip of her arm and gave it another twist. Emily gave a gasp of pain; a pity that the garden was at the back of the house, and at this side, even, where it bordered the street, there was a high brick wall, guaranteed to keep out all sound. All the same, a good scream was worth trying.

  She let out a yell which gave ample proof of a very sound pair of lungs, bit the hand which instantly clamped down on her mouth, and screamed, ‘Help!’ at the top of her voice. The hand came down again, this time slapping her hard so that the teeth jarred in her head. But it didn’t prevent her from kicking out briefly, hoping to hit something. She had caught a shin a nasty crack before the hand, balled into a fist this time, caught her a blow over her eye, and she slid on to the snow, temporarily bereft of her senses.

  Mr van Tecqx, getting out of his car, heard the first yell, locked the car door and took the steps to his front door in a fine turn of speed. His hearing was excellent; the yell had come from his own garden, from the narrow strip which ran up to the brick wall which encircled it and shut it off from the street. He had his key in the door, opened it, crossed the hall and the drawing-room and flung open the french windows at the same moment as Emily’s scream. It was a pity she had been knocked out, for she would have derived satisfaction from the sight of Mr van Tecqx felling her assailant with a great fist, and after a cursory glance to make sure he had knocked him out for the moment, bending over her and then plucking her out of the snow and carrying her into the drawing-room. Anneke and Bas had both arrived by then. Mr van Tecqx sent Bas to telephone the police, told Anneke to turn down Emily’s bed and ordered the french windows to be closed and locked. The police would come immediately and the man was still unconscious.

  Emily was small and light in his arms, and very pale. He carried her carefully upstairs and laid her on her bed, took her pulse, peered under her lids to make sure her reflexes were good and drew the coverlet over her, then sat down on the side of the bed.

  She opened her eyes almost immediately and drowsily frowned at him. He wasn’t very clear; her eyelid was swelling fast and before long she would have a black eye. She felt peculiar, and yet it seemed perfectly natural that Mr van Tecqx should be there. She said in a small voice, ‘Hello.’

  ‘You little fool,’ said Mr van Tecqx with a kind of cold rage. ‘What on earth possessed you to stick your neck out like that? You might have been killed!’

  She felt sick, but she could hear the rage; it stirred her into a rage as strong as his. ‘That would have been very awkward for you, wouldn’t it?’ she snapped at him, and burst into tears.

  Mr van Tecqx took her very gently in his arms and held her securely while she grizzled into his shoulder. Presently she contrived to stop save for the odd sob. ‘So sorry,’ she muttered into his waistcoat.

  ‘The best thing you could do,’ he told her in a kindly, avuncular voice. ‘Tears relieve an overwrought nervous system—rather like taking the lid off a saucepan of boiling water.’

  Emily had managed to stop crying now, but two tears oozed down her cheeks, but not because of fright or shock any more; they were in pure sorrow, for even though Mr van Tecqx was holding her close in his arms, the only feeling she inspired in him was to liken her to a saucepan on the boil.

  ‘Now, now,’ he admonished her, ‘don’t start again!’

  ‘You were so cross!’ She hadn’t meant her voice to sound like a wail.

  He laid her carefully back on to the pillows. ‘You are going to have a lovely black eye,’ he told her. ‘I’ll get you something for it. Here is Anneke to help you, and I’ll come back shortly.’

  ‘I have no intention of going to bed,’ said Emily peevishly. ‘A couple of aspirin and I’ll be perfectly all right.’

  ‘You will do exactly as I say, Emily.’ He turned away and spoke to Anneke, then departed. He was still angry, she thought unhappily, and submitted to Anneke’s kind help. ‘Is Lucillia all right?’ she asked.

  ‘I have been with her; all is well, miss, do not worry. The police are here and the man is taken.’ Anneke peered closely at Emily’s tearstained face. ‘You have a black eye, you are also damp from the snow.’ She slid Emily’s nightie over her head and turned back the duvet. ‘A warm bed and a glass of hot milk—I shall fetch for you.’

  Mr van Tecqx’s knock on the door was nicely timed. Emily was lying back with a nasty headache and a fast-closing eye. He spoke to his housekeeper, and she nodded and went away as he opened his bag and produced everything neces
sary for the soothing of the black eye, then shook out two pills.

  ‘Anneke will be back with a drink, and you will take these at the same time. You should sleep soundly and you are not to get up until I have seen you in the morning.’

  ‘Lucillia—?’

  ‘Is perfectly all right.’

  ‘I’m sorry I’ve made such a fuss and given you all so much work. You see, there wasn’t time to fetch Bas or Anneke, and I was so afraid that man would get in and steal the silver.’

  ‘Very praiseworthy of you, Emily, and very brave, but I must beg of you never to do such a thing again. I feel very much to blame, it never occurred to me to tell you that the house is protected by burglar alarms which sound off at the police station if anyone tries to enter.’

  She wasn’t going to cry again, even though she had to clench her teeth to stop her mouth shaking. She turned her head away, and presently he went away, giving place to Anneke bearing the hot milk and who provided a kind embrace in which Emily could weep in comfort.

  Asleep within ten minutes or so, Emily was unaware of Mr van Tecqx returning soft-footed to stand by her bed, looking down at her with a kind of thoughtful surprise on his handsome features.

  She felt very much better in the morning. She was even able to return his involuntary smile at the sight of her eye, now all colours of the rainbow and quite closed. In reply to his questions she affirmed that she was feeling perfectly well, that her headache had gone, which wasn’t quite true, and she would like to get up.

  ‘Very well, but first I should like to take a look at that eye and check your pulse.’

  When he had done he said, ‘Don’t attempt to lift or heave—I know Lucillia is very light, but just for a day or so be good enough to do as I ask. Dirk ter Beule has a free day, he will be here this morning and will carry Lucillia downstairs. I imagine he will be staying for the rest of the day, so you will be able to take a rest after lunch while they entertain each other. I shall be back around six o’clock and either of us will carry her back to her room. I have asked Anneke to give you a hand with Lucillia when you get her up. Let her walk as much as she wants with her crutches once Dirk is here to walk with her.’ He glanced at her, his eyebrows raised. ‘You understand?’

  Emily shot him a cross look from the good eye. ‘Yes,’ and mumbled a peevish, ‘Orders, orders,’ under her breath.

  ‘Tiresome, aren’t I? but I expect you to do as I ask, Emily, and I will let you have a shield for that eye.’

  He came back with it presently and adjusted it for her, but she didn’t look at his face, keeping her gaze on his dark silk tie, and no higher. She was taken by surprise when he asked, ‘How old are you, Emily?’

  ‘Twenty-three, but I think you know that already.’

  ‘You don’t look a day over fifteen.’

  He had gone, and she sat back mulling over the fact that while it was quite in order for him to ask her how old she was, it wouldn’t have done at all if she had asked him the same question.

  She got up presently after one of the maids had brought her a breakfast tray, and discovered that the headache hadn’t quite gone and that her eye was more painful than she had at first supposed, but she had told Mr van Tecqx she was perfectly all right and she had no intention of giving him the chance to say, ‘I told you so.’ Not that he would, she reflected as she dressed. She sat down at the dressing-table and studied her reflection; the eye-shield gave it a certain cachet, she considered as she brushed her hair into a French pleat. It was a pity, she told herself, looking at the one-eyed face staring back at her, that Mr van Tecqx had changed, at least for most of the time. He had been warmly friendly when they had first met, and she had been drawn to him at once, but nowadays he had become cool, even downright cold in his manner, as though he didn’t like her in his house, and the vexing thing was that, even in his most austere moments, she still loved him more than anything or anyone in the world.

  It didn’t bear thinking about. She powdered her nose and went along to Lucillia’s room.

  That young lady was sitting up in bed, reading her letters, but she put them down as Emily went in. ’emily, whatever has happened to your eye? Shouldn’t you be in bed? How mean of Sebastian to let you get up!’

  ‘I wanted to, and it’s only a black eye, the rest of me is quite all right.’

  ‘You gave us all a fearful fright. Wasn’t it lucky that Sebastian got home just as you screamed for help? He came to see me before he left this morning, and I am to see that you do as little as possible.’ Lucillia smiled widely. ‘Dirk is coming for the day—he sent me those flowers over there. Sebastian says you are to have a rest after lunch.’

  ‘That’s as maybe, but not before I’ve settled you for your rest in the drawing-room. Shall we get started so that you’re ready for Dirk when he gets here?’

  With Anneke’s help, the morning chores went smoothly. Lucillia even did her exercises under Juffrouw Smit’s eagle eye without a single grumble. Young love, thought Emily, feeling at least middle-aged, could perform miracles.

  Young Dr ter Beule carried Lucillia tenderly down to the drawing-room and Emily settled her in one of the high-backed armchairs by the fire. It was a bright morning and frosty, so that the snow still lay thick and white in the garden, and Dirk, going to look out of the window, remarked gleefully that if the weather continued cold they would be able to skate.

  A silence greeted this remark and he turned to see two reproachful faces staring at him. He was a resourceful young man; he went on without a noticeable pause, ‘We’ll wrap you up in furs and woolly things, Lucillia, and put you into a chair with runners and I’ll whizz you round. There must be one in your attic?’

  She was smiling again. ‘Oh, yes, there is—we’ll all go. Emily, can you skate?’

  ‘No, but I’d love to come and watch.’

  ‘But you must skate—we’ll get Sebastian to teach you.’

  Emily was saved from replying by the appearance of the coffee tray brought in by Bas, with a message from Anneke to say that she had made the little biscuits Dr ter Beule had enjoyed, and when they had had their coffee she excused herself with the plea that she had things to see to in Lucillia’s room. Not that either of her companions listened; they smiled vaguely at her as she went and became at once engrossed in each other.

  Emily was tidying away the magazines and books strewn around Lucillia’s room when Bas came to tell her that Mevrouw vanTecqx had arrived and wished to see her.

  She was in the small sitting-room, and rather to Emily’s surprise had not as yet seen Lucillia. ‘I came to see you, my dear, and since Sebastian tells me that young Dirk ter Beule is spending the day with Lucillia, I will look in on them only briefly. Bas is being kind and bringing me some coffee—will you have another cup with me? Do sit down. Your poor eye, it must be giving you a good deal of pain? Sebastian tells me there is no damage done, for which we must be thankful, but I could wish that you had stayed in bed and rested.’

  She paused while Bas arranged the coffee tray on a table at her elbow, and when she had poured them each a cup said, ‘Sebastian was greatly upset. He telephoned me yesterday evening—it was a very brave thing to do, Emily.’

  ‘But there was no need, and I’ve given everyone a lot of extra trouble and work. Mr van Tecqx was quite right when he called me a little fool.’

  ‘Did he indeed? I hope you put him in his place.’ Mevrouw van Tecqx uttered the words sternly; but she looked pleased and a little smug, but by the time Emily glanced up from her cup her face was composed into its normal pleasant expression.

  ‘Well, no…’ Emily blushed a little at the memory of her childish burst of tears, and her companion noted it with satisfaction, although all she said was, ‘We are all so very relieved that you weren’t severely injured. I understand the man was wanted by the police for other robberies. Now tell me, child, have you good news of your father?’

  ‘Yes, thank you, mevrouw, he’s making a splendid recovery—very soon now Mr v
an Tecqx says he’ll operate on the other hip.’

  ‘The nurse is entirely satisfactory?’

  ‘Oh, yes, and Podge, my cat, is very happy living at home. He never went out—only to a little back yard twice a day—when he lived in London with me.’

  ‘You will go back there, to London?’

  ‘Yes, I shall have to, so I can finish my training. But I’ll be able to live in the Nurses’ Home. Podge will have to stay with my father, but I’m sure he’ll like that.’

  ‘You, Emily? You will be glad to go back to the hospital?’

  Emily said, ‘Yes,’ a shade too quickly, and her companion’s blue eyes, so like her son’s, sparkled at her private thoughts. A very enlightening little chat, she reflected with satisfaction, and declared her intention of spending a few minutes with Lucillia. ‘Come with me, child. I need to say a few words to her about our gifts for Christmas, and you can entertain Dirk while I do so.’

  Which was why Emily was in the drawing-room when Bas came to tell them that Juffrouw van Telle had called.

  Mevrouw van Tecqx frowned. ‘Will you show her in, Bas, and bring more coffee.’ A request even Emily could understand now. She was timid about speaking Dutch, but if she listened hard she was beginning to unravel short, easy remarks.

  Their visitor swept in, a fashion-plate in furs and soft leather boots which Emily instantly coveted. She didn’t see Emily at first but made a great business of greeting the other before sitting down close to Dirk; she hadn’t met him before and it was obvious that she was bent on charming him. Luckily, or unluckily for Emily, she caught sight of Emily’s face and gave a little shriek of laughter. Emily couldn’t understand what she said, which was just as well, but she could see the mockery on the other girl’s face and the look of indignation on Mevrouw van Tecqx’s placid features. It was Lucillia who spoke, in English. ’emily has been very brave, catching a thief who knocked her down and probably would have killed her, only Sebastian saved her.’