An Independent Woman. Betty Neels

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СКАЧАТЬ day, going outside in his slippers.’

      Ruth gave the Professor an apologetic glance. ‘We have a visitor, Julia.’

      Julia turned round then, and looked at the pair of them standing in the doorway. Ruth, as lovely as ever, looked put out and her companion looked amused. Julia got to her feet, looking at him. Not quite her idea of a professor: immensely tall and large in his person, dark hair going grey, heavy brows above cold eyes and a nose high-bridged and patrician above a thin mouth. Better a friend than an enemy, thought Julia. Not that he looked very friendly…

      She held out a hand and had it gently crushed.

      ‘I’ll make the coffee,’ said Ruth, and shut the door behind her.

      ‘Do sit down,’ said Julia, being sociable.

      Instead he crossed the room to stand beside her and look down at the stuff spread out on the carpet.

      ‘It looks like a curtain,’ he observed.

      ‘It is a curtain,’ said Julia snappishly. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that by the time she had finished with it it would be a dress suitable to wear to an annual dance which the firm she worked for gave to its employees. A not very exciting occasion, but it was to be held at one of London’s well-known hotels and that, combined with the fact that it was mid-February and life was a bit dull, meant that the occasion merited an effort on her part to make the best of herself.

      She remembered her manners. ‘Do you know Thomas? I suppose you’re from the hospital. He’s Ruth’s fiancé. He’s not ill or anything?’

      ‘I know Thomas and I am at the same hospital. He is in splendid health.’

      ‘Oh, good. But horribly overworked, I suppose?’

      ‘Yes, indeed.’ His eye fell on the curtain once more.

      ‘You are a skilled needlewoman?’

      ‘Only when I am desperate. What do you do at the hospital? Teach, I suppose, if you are a professor?’

      ‘I do my best…’

      ‘Of what? Professor of what?’

      ‘Surgery.’

      ‘So you’re handy with a needle too!’ said Julia, and before he could answer that Ruth came in with the coffee.

      ‘Getting to know each other?’ she asked cheerfully.

      ‘Thank you for bringing the parcel, Professor. I’m sorry you won’t see Monica—she runs the nursery school here. Luckily I’ve got the morning off from the surgery, and Julia is always here, of course. She works at home—writes verses for greetings cards.’

      Ruth handed round the coffee, oblivious of Julia’s heavy frown.

      ‘How very interesting,’ observed the Professor, and she gave him a quick look, suspecting that he was amused. Which he was, although nothing of it showed on his face.

      Ruth asked diffidently. ‘I suppose Thomas hasn’t heard if he’s got that senior registrar’s job? I know he’d phone me, but if he’s busy…’

      ‘I think I can set your mind at rest. He should hear some time today. He’s a good man and I shall be glad to have him in my team in a senior capacity.’ He smiled at Ruth. ‘Does that mean that you will marry?’

      She beamed at him. ‘Yes, just as soon as we can find somewhere to live.’ She went on chattily, ‘An aunt left us this house, and we came here to live when Mother and Father died, but I think we shall all be glad when we marry and can leave it.’

      ‘Your other sister—Monica?’encouraged the Professor gently.

      ‘Oh, she’s engaged to the local curate; he’s just waiting to get a parish. And Julia’s got an admirer—a junior partner in the firm she works for. So you see, we are all nicely settled.’

      He glanced at Julia. She didn’t look at all settled, for she was indignantly pink and looked as though she wanted to throw something. She said coldly, ‘I’m sure the Professor isn’t in the least interested in us, Ruth.’She picked up the coffee pot. ‘More coffee, Professor?’

      Her tone dared him to say yes and delay his departure.

      He had a second cup, and she hated him. And she thought he would never go.

      When he did, he shook hands, with the observation that the dress would be a success.

      Ruth went with him to the door. When she came back she said, ‘He’s got a Rolls; you ought to see it.’She glanced at Julia’s kneeling form. ‘You were a bit rude, dear. And he’s such a nice man.’

      Julia snipped savagely at a length of curtain. ‘I hope I never meet him again.’

      ‘Well, I don’t suppose you will. He’s a bit grand for us…’

      ‘There’s nothing wrong with a rising young surgeon and a member of the clergy.’ She’d almost added and a junior partner in a greetings card firm,’ but she didn’t, for Oscar, accepted as her admirer by everyone but herself, didn’t quite fit. Curiosity got the better of her.

      ‘Why do you say he’s grand?’

      ‘He’s at the very top of the tree in the medical world and he’s got a Dutch title—comes from an ancient family with lots of money. Never talks about himself. Thomas says he’s a very private man.’

      ‘Huh,’said Julia. ‘Probably no one’s good enough for him.’

      Ruth commented mildly, ‘You do dislike him, don’t you?’

      Julia began to wield her scissors again. ‘Dislike him? I don’t even know him. Shall we have Welsh rarebit for lunch? I’ll make some scones for tea. Monica will be ravenous when she gets home; she never has time to eat her sandwiches. And if you’re going to the shops you could bring some steak and kidney and I’ll make a pudding.’ She added, ‘Filling and cheap.’

      She spoke without rancour; the three Gracey sisters, living together for the sake of economy in the poky little house a long-dead aunt had bequeathed to them, had learned to live frugally. The house might be theirs, but there were rates and taxes, gas and electricity, clothes and food to be paid for. None of them had been trained to do anything in the business world, having been left suddenly with nothing but memories of their mother and father, killed in a car accident, and a carefree life in a pleasant old house in the country with never a thought of money worries.

      It had been Julia who’d got them organised, refusing to be daunted by unexpected debts, selling their home to pay off the mortgage, arguing with bank managers, solicitors, and salvaging the remnants of her father’s ill-advised investments. Once in their new home, it had been she who had urged the rather shy Ruth to take the part-time job as a receptionist to the local doctor while she looked for work for herself and Monica joined the staff of the local nursery school. But Julia had had no luck until, searching through the ads in the local paper, she’d seen one from the greetings card company.

      Nothing ventured, nothing gained, she had decided, and had sat down to compose СКАЧАТЬ